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HOLM'S RACE 
ASSIMILATION 

OR THE 

FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 






A Complete Scientific Exposition of the Most Tre- 
mendous Question that has ever confronted 
V^o races in the ^vorld's history 



By 

PROF. JOHN JAMES HOLM 



INCLUDING a Resume by the follo'wintf noted Afro-Americans, 
prepared by them for this book: 

Rev. John H. White, D. D. Dr. James E. Shepard 

Prof. George E. Davis. Ph. D. Prof. William Pickens 

Bishop AlexanderWalters, A.M.. D. D. James E. McGirt 

Anna D. Borden Sophia Cox Johnson 

Bishop J. W^. Smith, D. D. Rev. J. W. Wood. D. D. 



Profusely Illustrated with nearly 100 Half- 
tones, including many striking original 
dra^vings by the author 



Published Exclusively 
By 

J. L. NICHOLS £? COMPANY 

Naperville, 111. Atlanta, Ga. 

AGENTS WANTED 



Mi4 



Copyrighted, 1910, 

BY 

PROF. JOHN J. HOr^M 



CI.A28(n4S 

/ ' 




"^ 



% 

J 






4 CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



PAGE 

Preface 15 

Introduction. By Marion Edward 
Church 19 

I. The Blood of Ham and Japheth 25 

Our Position— Ancient History — Xoah and 
the Flood— Variety and Union— The Three 
Divisions of the Races— Aryan, Semitic, 
Hamitic— The Kinky-haired Hamite — Was 
Buddha a Kinky-haired Negro?— The Negro 
—He Again Attains Civilization— Mr. Roose- 
velt Says That There Will be a White Africa 
—He Helped to Enslave Himself— Facts 
Briefly Stated — Classifying the American 
Negro. 

II. Conflicting Elements of Progress 4S 

Lack of Confidence — Underground Current 
—Whites Disappointed in Them— No Cheap 
Labor— Commercial Growth — The Negro Dis- 
covers He is Needed— He Goes to the City— 
We Deplore the Fact— A Cry for More Ef- 
ficient Labor— Foreign Immigration will Prove 
a Blessing to the Negro— The Negro Must be 
Ireated with an Object. 

III. The "Smart Negro" 58 

How Knowledge Spread— The Old Planta- 
tion Schools— Chivalrous Spirits— They Are 
Bound to Rise— May As Well Confess It— 
Not Weak and Helpless— Will Not Submit 
to Wiles of White Relatives— Would be No 
Race Question— The White Man's Blood— 
The White Man Stands Accused Before God 
—Negro Cannot be Deported— An Endless 
Relationship Between the Races in the South 
—Give Credit Where It Is Due— Some Smart 
Negroes. (Honorable Frederick Douglass, Dr 
Booker T. Washington, Honorable P. B S 
Pinchback, Honorable Theophile T. Allain 
Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, D. D , LL D ' 
Rev. Lemuel Hayes, A. M.; Honorable 
5 



6 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER ^^^.^^^ ^ ^^^^^^ ^ g ^ ^^^ ^j^ B.: Col- 

onel Robert Harlem, Samuel Jefferson Davis 
Rev. Bartlett Tavlor. Bishop James Vanck.) 
—The Full-blooded Negro Has Talent. 

IV. Educatiox and Equality 87 

Education in a Republic Means Equality- 
Brute Force May be Used— The Japanese 
May Own the Southern States— A Great 
Army of Children— What Then?— Southern 
White Illiteracy— Darkest Africa in America 
-Inequality and Education a Transparent 
Doctrine— What Japanese Think of It. 

V. The Color Line 112 

Do Not Champion the Negro at the Ex- 
pense of Southern WMiites- Hard Things 
Hurled at Negro's Friends— A Highly Censur- 
able Act— Would Denounce Jesus— The Fif- 
teenth Amendment— Gap Just as Wide Be- 
tween Negro and White— Indians and Negroes 
Vote— Tillman Does Not Want the Negro's 
Heel on His Neck— Color Line in Politics— 
Thev Rub in the Color Line— The Negro's 
Place — Another Anti-Negro Philosopher— 
A Broad, Unbiased Investigation — God's 
Finger of Approval is Upon the Mulatto. 

VI. Northern Prejudice 134 

A Scattered Few Hold Color Line in Con- 
tempt — The Color Line Fever — The Color 
Line Among Spanish War Veterans — The 
Colored Gentleman— Colored Children of the 
Gentleman— A Bad Element Not a Credit. 

VII. Color Against White 147 

A \\'rong Feeling — A Fraternal Spirit and 
a Tie that Binds— Whj^t Can be thc_ First 
Cause of the Impending Social Eruption? — 
They Have Kindled Their Own Fire— The 
Dangerous Class of Negroes — Secret Orders 
Among the Negroes — Fundamental Doctrine — 
The Pink-skinned Man is His Friend — Love 
Begets Love — A Terrible Day for America. 

VIII. Crime, Law and Punishment ; ITl 

Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth— The :\Iost 
Outrageous Practice — Horrors in American 
Prisons — United States Penal System is a 
Failure — Who Makes the Criminals^— The 
Lynch Law — The Negro as a Criminal — Few- 
Outrages Committed in the North — Why? — 



CONTENTS 7 

CHAPTER PACE 

Who Does the Lynching in the South? — The 
Substitute for Lynch Law — A Kind of Mock 
Trial — Virginia Has Such a Law — State 
Eunuch Institutions — The Sterilization of 
Criminals — Contrary to Divine Law — Are the 
Jungles Calling Him Back? 

IX. The TiiMPERAMEXTS 200 

The Mental Temperament — The Vital Tem- 
perament — The Motive Temperament. 
X. The Brain and the Mind 216 

The Making of a Perfect Man— Brain and 
Mind— Results When Mental Dissimilarities 
Cross — Skull and Brain Growth — Cranial 
Capacity of the Races— What Indicates Mental 
Power? — The Size of the Head. 

XI. Dissemination and Attraction 228 

Dissimilarities Affiliate for Evolutionary 
Growth— The Law of Species— The Divine 
Plan of Man's Redemption— The Garden of 
Eden— Would Experience a Calamitv— Dis- 
semination Grows Stronger — There is a Divine 
Purpose in Mixing— Is Outrageous, Yci Divine. 
XII. Race Integritv 24:5 

The Race Integrity Crank— The Man Who 
Is Not a Negro— Would Encourage Inter- 
marriage—Nature Alwavs Endeavors to Pro- 
duce Her Best— Was Never Taken Seriously 
—Thousands Are Not Negroes— A Woman 
Endures a Man's Embrace— Race Inte^^ritv 
Nothing But a Pad- One Race Savs Maximo 
Gomez— Race Pride is a Political Issue South. 

Xiri. The Anti-Miscegenation Movement.. 263 

Editorials From Prominent Southern Papers 
—Professor Holm Writes Hon. Harris Dick- 
son— Honorable Harris Dickson Answers- 
Membership in the Anti-Miscegenation League 
—Information Blank— Professor Holm Ans- 
wers Dickson, Defending His Position— OfT- 
^^u'"^ ?Ji^^^ Constitute Legal Marriage — 
Those Who Live Together Must xAIarry— 
Some Whites Are Unduly Attracted Ama- 
torially— There is Plenty of Evidence. 

XIV. .Social Vice Versus Legal Interm \r- 

riag"e 2*-Q 

Unnatural Conditions Between the Races 
the Lause of Vice— Is Shocking, Indeed— The 



8 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



Ethical Side Must he Considered — Forbidden 
Fruit IS Sweetest — All Races Melted Together 
Here — Evidences of Forty-five Years' Illicit 
Mixing — Cannot Prevent Love But Would 
Not Advise Marriage — Should be No Admix- 
ture of Racial Stock — The Men Who Arc 
Bent on Mixing — Compelled to Advocate 
Legal Intermarriage — The True State of the 
Colored Woman — Frederick Douglass Saw It 
— Intermarriage Prohibitions are Degrading — 
The Colored Man Would Receive Social 
Justice — Our Marriage Laws are Outrageous 
— Where Indians and Whites Marry — A Polit- 
ical Change Means Social Elevation and Sal- 
vation — Love Between the Sexes of the Races 
is Conducive to Home Life — Why the Law is 
Powerless. 

XV. Woman's Place and Power 



PAGB 



333 



A Perfect Posterity Should be the Aim — 
Children a Necessary Evil — Single Blessed- 
ness — Women Will Propose — Women's Suf- 
frage Would Prove of Benefit to Man — They 
Will Solve the Race Question — Racial Purity 
—What Is It?— A Bad Kind of Mixing— The 
Greatest Thing is Love — The Hope of the 
World — An Appeal to Noble Womanhood — 
Facts Are Stubborn. 

XVI. Scientific Adaptation of White and 

Color 35T 

A Superbly Mated Pair — A Mismated Ex- 
ample — Almost a Colored Venus — Examples 
of Physical and Mental Degeneracy — How 
Much Better Not Thus Born — Phrenological 
Location of the Social Evil — Offspring of 
Right Crossing — Offspring Alone Constitutes 
True Marriage. 

XVII. Beautiful Examples Illustrated 379 

The Mating of Superior Dissimilarities — 
Three Generations — The Progeny of the Un- 
desirable Father. 

XVIII. Love, or Sex-Amalgamation 391 

How Superior Children Are Born — Who Is 
and Who Is Not Married — Right and Wrong 
Sex-Amalgamation — The Loss of Sjamina At- 
tributed to Unnatural Conditions — What Prof. 
Wm. A. McKeever Says of College Students — 
The Human Race Neglected — Changing Cos- 



CONTENTS 9 

CHAPTER PAGE 

ditions Change Character — Parents are Crim- 
inally Negligent — A Child Well Born is 
Trained at Birth — A Mother is the Pre-natal 
Kindergarten Teacher. 

XIX. Psychic Evolution, or Soul-life and 

Thought Force 413 

Soul-Life — No Soul-Life — Highly Developed 
Soul-Life— The Man Who Feels All is Matter 
—We May Change If We Will It— We Re- 
ceive as Much as We Believe — Material Evi- 
dence Illustrates — Man is a Conscious and 
Creative Being — Parents Shape the Soul of 
Their Children — A Union of Thought-forces 
are Irresistible — The Way Out Summed Up. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Prof. John James Holm 2 

Rev. Marion Edward Church , 19 

How Science and Prejudice Differ in the Likeness of 

Noah 30 

The Daibutsu at Ueno, Japan 36 

The Daibutsu of Industrial Education in America 37 

A Full Blooded African 44 

The Poor Mortal 53 

The Lowly in the Black Belt on Sunday Morning 60 

Vardaman's Ideal of Justice ; 65 

Stripes Without Stars 72 

A Group of Smart Negroes, Born During Sl.wery 77 

Phillis Wheatley 81 

Moses Meets Princess Tharbis , 84 

Scholars of a Black Belt District School 93 

A Student in Brown 96 

Anti-Negro Philosopher 122 

He Vomits Political Race Dope 130 

A Group of Colored Children of the Gentleman 143 

The Old Black Mammy ,. 150 

A Sort of Leech 152 

Sermon on the Mount » 162 

Burning at the Stake 180 

■Convict Camp 186 

Three Pencil Studies in Crime by the Author 190 

The Three Temperaments 201 

■Olivia D. Washington 202 

Prof. S. G. Atkins 203 

Dr. Joseph C. Price 205 

Temperaments ^ 208 

Bishop B. W. Arnett 211 

Hon. Frederick Douglass 214 

A Scientific Christ 217 

Results When Mental Dissimil.\rities Cross 222 

11 



12 ILLUSTRATIONS 

TAGE 

The Law of Species Forbids Mixing 239 

Guilty Yet Happy 256 

Forbidden Fruit 270 

When Papa is at Home 282 

Children From White Father and Brown Mother 284 

A Sweet, Dark Bride 288 

Children Born to Caucasian Mothers and Negro Fathers 297 
Colored Caucasian Woman and Her Children by Dark 

Husband 304 

Pretty Colored Caucasian Women 312 

Pretty French Creole Ladies 31*) 

Pretty Brown and Yellow Ladies 322 

Two Colored Beauties of the Far South 324 

Social Equality: Love, Evolution and Progress 329 

Future Leaders of Society 340 

Three Types of Colored Women tx the Far South 349 

An Appeal to the World 354 

J. Roland, Ph. D 359 

Rosaline 361 

Sam Slick 363 

Little Sam 366 . 

Sam 368 

How Reformers Miss the Center of Vice 371 

Master Roland 374 

Iraline 375 

Miis. Dr. Summer 380 

Dr. Summer 382 

Betsy 383 

Summerfield 384 

Master Summer 385 

McNay 386 

Clara McNay 387 

:\Iaster McNay , 388 

The Mother is the Pre-Natal Teacher of Her Race.... 407 

Bishop R. Allen 418 

A Low Class East African Savage 419 

Bishop James Varick 420 



RESUME 



CONTENTS 

PACE 

Introduction 43G 

The Footprints OF THE IIamitic or Negro Race in History, 
By John H. White, D. D 438 

Color Prejudice in America and Europe — Causes. By Dr. 
James E. Shepard 446 

An Optimistic View of the Negro Question. By Prof. 
G. E. Davis, Ph. D 454 

Intercourse Between the Races. By Prof. William Pickens 470 

Economic Law Demands Freedom of Marriage, By James 
E. McGirt 483 

Miscegenation and its Baneful Effects. By Bishop Alex- 
ander Walters, A. M., D. D , 486 

The Colored Woman as She Is. By Anna D. Borden 489 

Some Thoughts For Both Races to Ponder Over. By 
Anna D. Borden 497 

A Color Line Divides Us. Poem .^ 503 

The Colored W^oman on the Plantation, and How She 
is Raised by Progress Made. By Sophia Cox Johnson... 504 

All Human Blood is Alike — Intermarriage. By Bishop J. 
W. Smith, D. D oil 

The Afro-American as He WaSj Now Is and Will Be. 
How He Is Bleaching and Will Become Socially 
Equal. By Rev. J. W. Wood, D. D 519 



13 



RESUME 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Rev. John H. White, D. D 438 

Dr. James E. Shepard 447 

Prof. George E. Davis, Ph. D 455 

Prof. William Pickens and Wife 470 

Children of Mr. and Mrs. Pickens. ^ 473 

James E. McGirt 484 

Bishop Alexander Walters, A. M., D. D 486 

Anna D. Borden 489 

A Color Line Divides Us 503 

Sophia Cox Johnson 507 

BisHoi' J. W. Smith, D. D 512 

Rev. J. W. Wood, D. D 520 



14 



PREFACE 



I propose to treat the race problem in America 
from a scientific viewpoint never before attempt- 
ed. In addressing my readers I shall use the 
plural number, because I feel that it is not "I" 
but "We," who are writing this book. I feel 
the spiritual assistance of Garrison, Phillips, 
Douglass and others, to strengthen, encourage 
and embolden me to tell, without fear or favor, 
the unvarnished truth. 

If my reader believes that this book is written 
in defense of the Negro he is, indeed, mistaken. 
I, as a scientist, write in defense of justice. That 
means that I condemn those elements in human 
society which tend to pull apart, tear down and 
destroy, and defend those elements which build 
up, unite and harmonize. This book is not in- 
tended to be used in a praise service, nor yet in 
an indignation meeting, but in the spacious 
"Hall of Reason and Justice." 

A scientist may predict an earthquake, not 
because he believes in one or enjoys one, but be- 
cause the indications of one are apparent to him. 
This is the position I occupy. There are certain 
unalterable natural laws that man must obey, 
though he squirm, sputter and protest under the 
focused heat of compulsion, he is forced to sub- 
mit to the inevitable in the end. This, both races 

15 



1« PREFACE 

(the colored and white) must ultimately do in 
America. 

We propose to take the noose from the neck of 
Miss Justice and let her cut and slash with her 
flaming sword, Mr. Wrong, who sits upon the 
throne and tramples under foot the helpless, just 
because he is popular. I hope that we may in- 
duce our readers to look Justice squarely in the 
eye and stand back and reason together upon the 
greatest problem which confronts the American 
people, viz., legal amalgamation and social 
justice between the races. This book may be 
received with wailing and gnashing of teeth by 
the wrong-doers in the pit of human depravity, 
who flaunt in the face of justice the red rag of 
anarchy and crime without a blush of shame; 
but to the justice-loving citizen, white and col- 
ored, we believe it will at least prove a prophecy, 
or, perchance, a beacon light that will show the 
way to that day when all men, white, black, 
brown, red and yellow will join hands in unison 
on a common level, for the betterment of all 
mankind. 

I wish to state positively here that I have no 
message for the unfortunately developed souls 
who are only able to see things through the 
stained glass of prejudice and lewdness, and are 
consequently not able to discern right from 
wrong. 



PREFACE 17 

It has been necessary for me to assume the 
attitude of a surgeon in the examination of a 
ghastly, putrifying cancer that must be treated 
with scientific certainty, and be laid bare to the 
light of day from which it was so long hid, 
though of its existence all were aware; and 
which has been regarded by the Church and 
State in a cool, philosophical manner — a neces- 
sary evil. If I made any attempt to please my 
readers I should fall far short of what I wish to 
say, and what I believe a large number of serious- 
minded people of both races want to know, and 
ought to know on the questions discussed herein. 

There will no doubt be objections raised by 
the over-wrought, self-righteous personalities, in 
regard to the influence, of a questionable kind, 
this book may exercise over the young people of 
both races. This is no Sunday school book for 
little children. Those of mature years will find 
in it instructions and advice of vital importance 
to themselves, their posterity, and the entire 
human family. It is my aim to place this book 
in the hands of all intelligent young people of 
both races, as far as possible, for nothing will 
quicker eradicate color lines and race prejudice 
than to show, in unmistakable language, to all 
young Americans that the future greatness of 
this country depends upon the peaceful assimi- 
lation of all its people; and that it is only the 

2 



18 PREFACE 

silly and ignorant, the savage and barbarian, 
who exalts himself and debases his neighbor of 
another color. 

On the other hand, I also desire to show our 
young Americans that the variety of races in our 
country means future greatness and unlimited 
possibilities; and that when these races are judi- 
ciously crossed, scientifically mated, a new man 
Avill in time result, with marvelous intellectual 
and physical powers such as the world has 
never known. I wish to show them that the best 
and bluest blood in the South has crossed with 
the Negro race ever since the earliest days of 
slavery, and inculcate a moral sense of this kin- 
ship. I, furthermore, wish to show them that 
illicit mixing is condemned by the civilized 
world and the laws of Nature; but that the 
legitimate union of two souls of marked dis- 
similarities, when perfectly harmonized, will 
produce a posterity superior to all others, and 
that it is not a shame but an honor to uphold and 
defend, in true wedlock, the affinity of their soul, 
whether that affinity be black, brown, red, yellow 
or white. I shall give ample scientific proof that 
racial admixture is inevitable, that intermarriage 
prohibition is an outrage to human justice, con- 
trary to a fixed law of Nature, demoralizing to 
both races and the crowning curse of our boasted 
civilization. THE AUTHOR. 




N'l Edward Cfffurcfi. 



ROM hours already 
crowded with a mul- 
tiplicity of my public 
duties, I snatch a f e w 
minutes to write a short 
introduction to this great book, and its true im- 
port, by Prof. John James Holm. 

The name of Prof. Holm is in itself a guaran- 
tee of its soundness of logic, and the excellence 
of the presentation of this production of his 
richly endowed and highly cultured mind. 

In this book the author discusses a subject that 
has been a stubborn controversy for centuries. 
To one that might at a glance of the subject 
turn away from the book without carefully and 
diligently reading the able, convincing argu- 
ments it contains; let me say, he will miss an 
opportunity of improving heart and mmd, 
which, when he comes to realize it fully, will 
be to him a cause for many regrets. 

19 



20 INTRODUCTION 

This great book is not a rehash of old argu- 
ments. The learned author, by careful, laborious 
research, brings to us arguments of originality 
and freshness. The arguments put forth are not 
only interesting and eloquent, but to any fair- 
minded man convincing. It seems to me it 
exhibits not only a thorough familiarity with 
the facts and doctrines of the Divine Writings, 
but a remarkable insight into their true import, 
which seems to have been born of his reliance 
on God for the presence of the Holy Spirit to 
shed light upon his work. 

I rejoice that in rapidly increasing numbers 
we are already beginning to see more clearly 
some of the fallacies so detrimental to our prog- 
ress. The numerous and practical illustrations 
with which the author has interspersed his book 
will have a peculiar attraction for all interested 
in this progress, which the races of America so 
sadly need. 

In my long and varied experience as a minister 
of the great African Methodist Episcopal Zion 
Church, I have found that for every great occa- 
sion of local or national magnitude in the up- 
building of my race a man or a woman of strong 
convictions and firm faith has stepped out boldly 
to proclaim the truth at any cost. Sometimes it 
has been one of our race, sometimes of the white 
race. In this case it is again a white man of the 



INTRODUCTION 21 

old Teutonic race who has dedicated his broad 
experience and remarkable scientific intellect to 
the advocacy of a cause that concerns the vital 
interests of both races in America. 

Nothing is as strange as the unpolished truth. 
When I had the distinguished honor to peep 
into the manuscript of this book, my eyes w^ere 
opened and the scales fell, and I saw the real 
condition of my people in the South. I was 
convicted and convinced that we all have been 
laboring under a bugbear and dared not stand 
erect; but as an old adage says: "The truth 
crushed to earth will rise again." We can no 
longer hide our faces after a careful reading of 
this book and plead ignorance. 

There is perhaps no man in either race better 
equipped to handle the subject of this book than 
Prof. Holm. When but a boy he manifested a 
great interest in psychological science. He was 
an early student of Prof. O. S. Fowler, and has 
ever since been a close student of human nature, 
making extensive investigations relative to the 
races in the South and elsewhere, covering many 
years. A man with such a natural-born gift, who 
has spared neither time or money to obtain the 
truth as he presents it, must be heard. No one 
can read this book without feeling that the heart 
of the author is wrapped up in its every page. 
He has been a believer in Universal Brotherhood 



22 INTRODUCTION 

since early manhood — that every man is his 
brother and every woman his sister, regardless 
of color or condition in life. I have often heard 
him say that he cannot feel a social difference 
between the respectable colored man and woman 
and a white man or woman who is respectable. 
His position or belief is perhaps most fully ex- 
pressed in the closing words of a memorial 
address, delivered in the A. M. E. Zion Church 
at Citronelle, Alabama, in behalf of the Rt. Rev. 
M. R. Franklin, D. D., who died last May 
(1909). 

"Live for those who love you, 
And for your enemies too, 
And life will prove a true success, 
In the good that you may do." 

Prof. Holm was reared in the great state of 
Wisconsin; he did not see the face of a Negro 
until grown; and when it was his privilege to 
associate with colored people, he did not see 
through the stained vision of race prejudice, but 
as a student of human nature the Negro proved 
very attractive material to him, and he dis- 
covered the latent possibilities of the race and 
became the friend of our downtrodden people. 
Years later, after gaining considerable knowl- 
edge from books, teachers, and by experience, it 
■was under the guidance of an all-wise and grac- 
ious Providence that he traveled South and lived 



INTRODUCTION 2a 

near the colored people of all classes. After 
spending more than twenty-six years of his life 
and money in study and research he comes for- 
ward with this book that will be instrumental, 
more than any other thing at the present time, in 
solving the race problem. 

Yours for the cause, 

Marion Edward Church, A. B. 



CHAPTER I 

THE BLOOD OF HAM AND JAPHETH 
INTRODUCTORY 

OUR POSITION.— In the following chap- 
ters we will endeavor to present to the reader in 
our homely, practical manner, some of the real 
and imaginary difficulties existing between the 
white and colored branch of the human family 
in America. We do not aim to escape the eye 
of the critic of this mixed family. We think 
and reason independent of and regardless of 
criticism and prejudice, and present the truth 
as we have found it, plain enough and practical 
enough to be understood by our readers. 

While we unhesitatingly condemn the prev- 
alent wrongs, we do not try to minimize or 
obscure the grievances of the white people, and 
especially magnify the grievances of the black 
man, or the colored offspring of the white man. 
We wish our readers to bear in mind, in reading 
this book, that all the wrongs which the Cau- 
casian has done the Negro would have been 
reversed, if that race had been on top and the 
white man underneath. 

25 



26 HOLxVrS RACE ASSIMILATION 

ANCIENT HISTORY records the fact that 
when the dark-skinned people were on top, that 
is, the most enlightened and civilized, they 
treated inferior races, or rather those less power- 
ful, with as much and even more cruelty than 
the Negro has ever suffered under the domina- 
tion of his white brother. The cruelties which 
the coffee-skinned Egyptian perpetrated toward 
the inoffensive Hebrews, is but one striking ex- 
ample of what other races suffered, in ancient 
times, as subjects and slaves of the dark-skinned 
or black races, when they ruled the world. On 
the other hand, the cruelties the Ethiopian has 
from time to time practiced on his own race un- 
doubtedly exceeds all wrongs he has ever en- 
dured at the hands of other peoples. 

Slavery existed among the kinky-haired peo- 
ple from the earliest history; in fact, slavery 
originated with the Ethiopian or so-called 
Hamitic branch of the human family. The 
dark people were the first who attained any 
degree of civilization, and through warfare 
came in possession of inferior tribes of various 
kinds, whom they enslaved. The pink-skinned 
man was undoubtedly among these, to serve his 
apprenticeship in the arts of civilization as a 
slave. 

We have not the least doubt but that the first 
prehistoric race of man was black complexioned. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 27 

Ridpath shows in his history of the world, on 
Race Chart No. i (showing the distribution of 
mankind on the hypothesis of a common origin) 
that the original stock was black, from which 
sprang the prehistoric brown or Mongoloid, 
from which sprang the prehistoric ruddy or 
white. 

NOAH AND THE FLOOD.— We have no 
reasons to doubt the authenticity of the Jewish 
Bible, which records the flood and the history 
of Noah and his sons. Science has never suc- 
cessfully proven to the contrary, but often affirms 
the fact that there was a universal inundation 
at some prehistoric period; and, if there was, it 
is just as reasonable to believe that there was a 
Noah to battle the floods and preserve our spe- 
cies. And if there was a Noah, it is a scientific 
certainty that his skin was black. No white- 
skinned people could exist in the prehistoric 
climate of Noah's time. Prior to the flood the 
earth was enveloped in a sheath of vapor, render- 
ing the atmosphere very humid and hot. To 
make ourselves understood by our readers we 
will take an egg as an illustration: The yolk 
represents the earth; the white, the atmosphere, 
and the shell, the sheath of water that surrounded 
the earth in prehistoric times, or, more correctly, 
before the flood. The flood was simply the 
breaking up of the envelopment of this sheath of 



28 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

water which surrounded the earth, and the 
settling of it upon the same, much as we see it 
at the present time. We have no space to devote 
to the exposition of this theory in this book. 
Others have devoted much time and study to this 
subject. We believe that the sudden change in 
animal life and vegetation, and also in climate 
upon the earth, as geology reveals, is one of the 
strongest proofs as to the correctness of this 
theory of the flood. The antediluvians were 
aware of the existence of this water envelopment 
of the earth, so also was the writer of Genesis. 
He speaks of it in the following manner: "And 
God said. Let there be a firmament in the midst 
of the waters, and let it divide the waters from 
the waters. And God made the firmament, and 
divided the waters which were under the firma- 
ment from the waters which were above the 
firmament; and it was so. And God called the 
firmament heaven." Then the writer speaks of 
the water and land division of the earth as fol- 
lows: "And God said. Let the waters under the 
heavens be gathered together unto one place, 
and let the dry land appear : and it was so. And 
God called the dry land Earth; and the gather- 
ing together of the waters called he Seas." The 
condition of the atmosphere, the writer describes 
in the following language: "But (there being no 
rain in that early day) there went up a mist from 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 29 

the earth, and watered the whole face of the 
ground." We can easily imagine the humidity 
of the atmosphere, with a mist sufficiently heavy 
to water a luxuriant tropical growth. During 
the antediluvian period there was no place on 
earth where irrigation was necessary. 

Out of this kind of environment Noah and his 
sons emerged when the clouds cleared away and 
the bright sun shone for the first time in a clear, 
crisp heaven. Prior to this time the sun had been 
hid by the sheath which enveloped the earth, 
causing a subdued brightness. Now it would 
burst forth in all its glory in the morning, and 
shine throughout the day. The writer says: 
''While the earth remaineth, seedtime and har- 
vest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, 
and day and night shall not cease." 

The strongest Biblical evidence we have that 
there was "Water above the firmament," is the 
appearance of the rainbow in the cloud after 
the deluge. The writer of Genesis was no doubt 
familiar wnth the natural cause of the rainbow. 

Without the rays of the sun reflecting against 
a rain cloud there could be no rainbow. While 
the earth was surrounded with a shell of water 
above the atmosphere, a "bow in the cloud" was 
an impossibility, because there was no sun that 
shone clearly and no cloud to reflect it. When 
the windows of heaven were opened the water 



30 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




HOW SCIENCE AND PREJUDICE DIFFER IN THE LIKENESS OF NOAH. 



OR THE FADIx\G LEOPARD'S SPOTS 31 

fell and the rainbow in the cloud appeared as a 
covenant that "All flesh be cut off any more by 
the waters of a flood; neither shall there any 
more be a flood to destroy the earth." The 
sudden breaking away of the water crust which 
surrounded the entire earth between four and 
Ave miles from its surface, caused a universal 
inundation. This leaves no ground for the argu- 
ment often put forth that all mankind was not 
destroyed by the flood, but that some escaped on 
dry land, among them a sort of half man and 
half monkey, which has since evolved into what 
is today known as the "inferior race." 

All races of people in the world today have 
their common origin in Noah and his offspring. 
No matter how man may have originated during 
the antediluvian period, there is not a scrap of 
evidence in either history, science or theology, 
that any escaped the deluge save a few of the 
most intelligent, under the guiding hand of a 
creative and preserving power. 

VARIETY AND UNION.— A variety is 
divine, in union there is strength. Some day, 
not far distant, mankind will realize this tre- 
mendous fact. We want our readers to realize 
this now. This book is not written to arouse 
race antagonism or hatred, but to alleviate ex- 
isting difficulties, harmonize as far as possible 
the opposing forces, and bring about a mutual 



32 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

understanding between a people who are today 
tied by many inseparable ties that must finally, 
triumphantly, end in harmony and permanent 
union. 

We hope to present overwhelming facts that 
will prove the truth of the above statement. We 
wish to prove to every reader — and let this book 
go on record — that race integrity in this great, 
free America is a myth ; that it has been a myth 
in every age of human experience, and that the 
few advocates of it today, in both races in this 
country, are opposing a natural law of evolution 
and human growth that no amount of racial 
hatred or prejudice can render inoperative. 

THE THREE DIVISIONS OF THE 
RACES. — Asia was undoubtedly the birthplace 
of mankind. It is believed that at a time far 
back of history there lived a people in Bactra 
that had considerable advancement in the arts 
of civilization. These people called themselves 
Aryas or Aryans, signifying to walk upright or 
straight. While Asia was the birthplace of man, 
Africa was the cradle of advanced civilization. 

The Aryan branch (Japhetic), to which all 
white-skinned people belong, has, since early 
history, been the competitive and aggressive one. 
The fittest among them have survived the cli- 
matic and combative conditions, under which 
they existed for so many ages, developing a stronjr 
race of people. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 33 

The Semitic branch has contributed to man- 
kind the three great religions of the world — the 
Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan — teaching 
the worship of one God. It has also given us the 
moral law. C. Osborn Ward says in his book, 
"The Ancient Lowly" (1893) : 

"The law of Moses had partly abolished slav- 
ery among the Hebrews as early as B. C. 1400, 
probably on account of the contempt for that deg- 
radation which the Hebrews felt, after the de- 
liverance from their protracted slavery in Egypt. 
It appears that the Hebrews were the chief 
originators and conservators of what is now 
known and advocated in the name socialism; 
and their weird life, peculiar language, laws, 
struggles and inextinguishable nationality scintil- 
lates through many of the obscurities of history 
in a manner to command the wonder, if not the 
awe, of all lovers of democratic society.'' 

The Hamitic branch, to which all the brown 
and black races belong, has been the great 
builder, and the earliest cultivator of the soil on 
an extensive scale. It has been remarkable for 
its massive architecture, which yet covers the 
tracks of these people, after thousands of years, 
the marvel of the modern world. The building 
proclivity of these people has only been feebly 
imitated by succeeding ages. When modern 
"skyscrapers" have crumbled to dust the great 



I 



34 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

pyramids and ruins of the ancient Ethiopian will 
yet be in evidence.* When all the rest of the 
world was in darkness, this branch of mankind 
lived in cities and was skilled in the art of work- 
ing in wood, metal and clay. It discovered the 
manufacture of malleable glass and the embalm- 
ing of bodies, which today belong to the lost arts. 

THE KINKY-HAIRED HAMITE.— The 
kinky-haired branch of the Hamitic race origin- 
ally occupied but a small area in west Africa, to 
which the parents of these people undoubtedly 
migrated from the seat of the earliest Ethiopian 
civilization. We have reasons to believe that 
this kinky-haired branch scarcely existed on the 
west coast of Africa at the time Moses led the 
Egyptian army into Ethiopia. (See history of 
Josephus.) 

The white race has perhaps never given full 
credit to the colored branch of the human family 
for the complete sway it had in the world in 
prehistoric times as well as in the earliest record- 
ed history. Fresh proof that the ancient Ethi- 
opians were a people of high culture and marked 
intellectual advancement is furnished by Prof. 
David Randall MacTver of the University of 
Pennsylvania, who has gathered a collection of 
antiquities from Nubia of much variety and 



*Sce "The Footprints of the Hamitic or Negro Race in 
History," in the resume of this book, bv Rev. John H. White, 
D. D. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 35 

artistic worth, aggregating five tons in weight. 
The articles he has gathered, Prof. A4aclver says, 
represent early Negro civilization that lasted for 
at least seven centuries. Including among the 
antiquities are various works of art and also some 
Ethiopic inscriptions. Prof. Maclver adds: 
"Our excavations have shown that the source 
of civilization of the period which our work in 
lower Nubia covered was Ethiopian. All the 
Negro works of art were discovered in an ex- 
tensive cemetery lying about ten feet under 
ground between Wady Haifa and Assouan in 
lower Nubia." 

WAS BUDDHA A KINKY-HAIRED 
NEGRO? — Buddha, one of the greatest moral 
and religious reformers the world has ever 
known was, for instance, at least as much a so- 
called Negro as Frederick Douglass or Booker 
T. Washington. In the old statues extant he re- 
sembles often, in feature as well as in the curl of 
his hair, a Negro. More than three million Bud- 
dhists in Asia worship at the shrine of a Buddha 
who has Negro features as well as the crisped 
hair. And there are two other statues of Buddha, 
one in Calanse and one at Ceylon, which have 
the kinky hair and long, pendant earrings. The 
Daibutsu, or great Buddha at Ueno, Japan, is a 
monstrous image to which the people of Tokyo 
Vesort to worship, and pay tribute for the remis- 



36 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

sion of their sins. We give a pen drawing of 
the Daibutsu. 

Compare the Daibutsu with the physiognomy 
of the yellow, red or white race, and you fail to 




THE DAIBUTSU AT UENO, JAPAN. 

There is a striking resemblance between this ancient statue 
and many leading men of the Afro-American race that no 
physiognomist can overlook. There is the same high forehead, 
the same eloquent eye, the same powerful nose, the same firm, 
passionate mouth, the same decisive chin and the same stubborn 
jaw we often meet in a leader of his race. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 37 

find any resemblance; but a cross between the 
Negro and Caucasian would produce features 
and talents like this Buddha possessed. 



the; daibutsu of industrial education 
at tuskegee, alabama. 

THE NEGRO.— The statement that the 
Negro or Ethiopian race is a young race, is, as 
already intimated, not really true. It is true 
that it is young in its present undeveloped state^ 



38 HOLM'S RACE ASSIiMILATION 

but this youth is its second childhood. The 
brown race and its prototype are the oldest in 
the world. And in passing we wish to say that 
we believe that there was a time when curly hair 
and a coffee-brown skin was considered a stamp 
of royalty among a people representing the high- 
est culture and civilization of the world. This 
stamp of royalty was universally recognized and 
emulated, so much so that it is to this day imi- 
tated by many straight-haired people in the arti- 
ficial curling of the hair. 

The Ethiopian and other branches of the same 
family spread their civilization and culture into 
every part of the known world. They conquered 
the then existing wild tribes in various places, 
and amalgamated and assimilated them. Out of 
these amalgamations other great races in time 
sprang up, and in turn they conquered their an- 
cient conquerers ; but finally a remarkably strong, 
pink-skinned race made its appearance upon the 
world's arena; and while it was rapidly tainted 
with Ethiopian blood, it maintained its own, and 
adopted and absorbed all the glory and civiliza- 
tion of this wonderful dark-skinned people, who 
then slowly passed out of the foremost ranks of 
progress. 

While a remnant of this people was in the 
lowest depths of savagery in the steaming, blister- 
ing jungles of equatorial Africa, thousands of 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 3& 

years later, slavery was introduced on the west- 
ern continent, and thousands of these poor, retro- 
grated beings were brought here and to other 
parts of the civilized world, to again toil and 
spin like their ancient forefathers, but this time 
not for themselves alone, but for the white- 
. skinned people whom they once knew and 
despised as pale-faced savages. 

HE AGAIN ATTAINS CIVILIZATION. 
— It is gratifying to note that the savage remnant 
of a once advanced people are again entering 
the ranks of civilization. Even in Abyssinia, 
that obscure ancient Ethiopian country, all male 
children over twelve years of age are now under 
a compulsory educational law, the state provid- 
ing the education and building many schools. 

The dark races are advancing in all parts of 
the world. Mr. Frank Carpenter, the noted trav- 
eler and correspondent, has given an encourag- 
ing report of the work Gorden college is doing 
for the natives in the Soudan, reaching every 
class from the Negro savage up to the more culti- 
vated Arabian. 

The law of dissemination has again, for several 
centuries past, operated in favor of these people, 
in that it has not only distributed thousands of 
them in every country, but also in crossing them 
freely with every race with whom they have 
come in contact. This fact is fully illustrated 



40 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

in the millions of mixed blood in the United 
States. And in Africa it is scarcely less true. 
The blood of the white and other races is flowing 
in the veins of thousands on that continent. It 
has penetrated to its very center. Many Negroes 
brought to America were of mixed stock. We 
find many with long, wavy black hair, whose 
skin is decidedly black. And as railroads and 
civilization conquer the trackless forest and im- 
penetrable jungle, the mixing process will be- 
come more and more apparent on the dark conti- 
nent. The day will again come when, not only 
on this continent but in Africa, a sunburnt or 
tan-skinned, curly-haired race will demand and 
receive recognition. 

MR. ROOSEVELT SAYS THERE WILL 
BE A WHITE AFRICA. — Ex-President 
Roosevelt spoke at a luncheon given in his honor 
at the African Inland Mission, an American 
institution at Kijabe, British East Africa, while 
on his hunting tour. He said: "I believe with 
all my heart that a large part of East Africa will 
form the 'white man's country.' Make every 
effort to build up a prosperous and numerous 
population. 

'T ask the settlers to co-operate with the mis- 
sionaries and treat the native justly and bring 
him to a higher level." 

The Southern Statesman (white) says: '' The 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 41 

white man's country' is an expression which indi- 
cates that it is the established policy of the white 
settlers to eventually drive the natives out of the 
most desirable portion of their own continent 
and confine them to the portions in which white 
men cannot thrive. A white Africa and a black 
Africa are to settle the matter in the dark conti- 
nent." 

Now, we believe that the native will no more 
be driven out of Africa, or that portion of the 
country best suited to the white man, than he is 
driven out of the United States. The Indian has 
been driven out of his country by the white man ; 
every other race of men may be driven out by 
the white man, when he so determines; but we 
can find no instance in history where the Negro 
and Caucasian settled togetlier in large numbers, 
where they ever again succeeded in separating. 
These two races seem to be better adapted to live 
together than any two extremely opposite races. 

Mark what we say, when the white man set- 
tles extensively in Africa and occupies every de- 
sirable portion of it, so will also his colored off- 
spring and the native full-blood occupy the same 
ground. The result will be amalgamation there 
as here in the United States. There will be a 
colored Caucasian race in Africa. 

Whether this will ever be called the colored 
Caucasian race in America, we will not venture 
to predict here, but it is its proper name. 



4g HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

HE HELPED TO ENSLAVE HIMSELF. 
— It is well known and recorded in slave history 
that this black, kinky-haired man was originally 
one of the causes of the wide distribution of him- 
self. During the flowery days of the slave traffic 
Negroland was so completely demoralized that 
it was appalling to behold, even to the hardened 
slave dealers of that dark day. Every tribe, 
every clan was against its neighbor, and on the 
outlook to entrap and sell to the slave buyer the 
men, women and children thus taken by violence. 
Whole villages and towns were often taken, the 
men Vv^ho resisted were slain in cold blood, and 
the women and children sold into bondage. 
In many instances these black fiends did not 
even spare their own children, but sold them 
with the rest of the stock in hand. The Moham- 
medans also paid especial attention to this traf- 
fic in later years. 

We find that the Negro, instead of persist- 
ently fighting against being enslaved, often took 
a willing hand in it, and was even anxious to 
sell his own countrymen and kin into slavery. 
Had he fought to the finish or to death this en- 
slavement, like the American Indian who 
was repeatedly tried, he would not have been 
sO extensively made use of and so absolutely 
humiliated. But the Negro people, like the 
Jews, refused to become extinct under the most 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 43 

adverse circumstances. They will adjust them- 
selves to any condition imaginable, and, unlike 
the Jews, will consent to mix extensively with 
other races with whom they come in contact. 

FACTS BRIEFLY STATED.— It was 
avarice on the part of the savage black man who 
often sold into slavery- his own kinsmen; avarice 
on the part of others who bought them and sold 
them ; avarice on the part of nations who made it 
lawful; avarice on tlic part of the people who 
sanctioned it; ignorance on the part of all; and 
finally, all was the cause of the operation of the 
immutable natural Ian- of (lisscmiutitirju. This 
fact we shall demonstrate fully in another part 
of this book. 

We will here, without further preliminaries, 
concentrate our thouglit and attention entirely 
upon the subject under consideration, viz., the 
true Afro-American (of mixed blood) and his 
prototype, both of whom are vulgarly called 
"nigger", by an ignorant, prejudiced white popu- 
lace in America, and by a deluded, half-savage 
remnant of their own race. 

CLASSIFYING THE AMERICAN 
NEGRO. — We would consider it unjust not to 
classify the Afro-American in this book. The 
true African Negro is fast disappearing. The 
name Negro is a misnomer, in that it conveys no 
idea whatever of the true character of the col- 



44 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ored Caucasian people or the Afro-Americans. 
If statistics could be carefully taken it would 
be found that there are less than one million 
absolutely full-blooded Africans in this country. 
The remaining nine or ten millions are of mixed 
blood. Four million are decidedly of Caucasian 
stamp, and are nothing less than Caucasians with 
a strain of more or less Negro blood. We speak 
of this here because we wish our readers to bear , 
this fact in mind. 




]t is a curiosity to see a full-blooded African in many parts 

of this country. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 45 

CHAPTER II 

CONFLICTING ELEMENTS OF PROGRESS. 

LACK OF CONFIDENCE — UNDER- 
GROUND CURRENT.— Years of residence 
and careful observation and investigation in this 
country, designated the ''Darkest South" by 
northern friends, unacquainted with the tre- 
mendous evolutionary process going on in this 
great Southhind, will necessarily change one's 
preconceived conceptions concerning ten mil- 
lion people about whom so much has been said 
and written, yet so very little is actually known 
by casual observers of both the North and South ; 
and who have heretofore escaped all unbiased, 
earnest scientific investigation, ^^^c dare say that 
one may become a resident of any thickly settled 
colored population in the South, for a long time, 
and not gain its entire confidence, or become 
acquainted with the deeper workings, the under- 
ground current of thought, the hidden convic- 
tions, the terrible potent influence, which dom- 
inates a great percentage of the colored people. 
WHITES DISAPPOINTED IN THEM. 
— We have met northern men who have come 
South with the expectation of finding the Negro, 
as a whole, a patient, docile animal, ready for 



46 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

any burden, abuse and misuse. They were dis- 
appointed in him, and many have now no more 
use for "niggers" than for very useless yellow 
dogs, who hang about the kitchen in daytime 
and bark at the moon at night. When they 
hired colored help they found that such was 
not always anxious to do all that was required 
of it, or that northern white help is reputed to 
do without so carefully calculating just the 
amount of physical exertion, etc., it takes to per- 
form a certain work, and the exact amount of 
remuneration that might be forthcoming for the 
least expenditure of strength. Should they de- 
sire to have work done which requires a little 
more effort than other work in the neighborhood, 
it is possible that they may find theirs displaced 
by an easier job. Hence it has been said that 
the Negro of this generation is, to a great extent, 
after an easy job, plenty of time to sport in, and 
plenty of money to sport with. But we have, 
indeed, found many exceptions to this rule. 
There are many individuals of the old and new 
South, in every community, who are hard work- 
ing, honest, intelligent, frugal people. 

NO CHEAP LABOR.— We are now con- 
cerned with the present Negro in the, and of 
the, "Darkest South," just as we find him. We 
have been in localities in several states where 
it is yet possible to secure good farm labor for 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 47 

fifty to seventy-five cents per day. We were 
told that it matters very little whether the Negro 
receives $3 or $6 per week; that he would work 
more days for less wages, and vice versa. But 
this statement, too, is false, as many work in one 
place and at the same employment for many 
years, just as steady as any man of the white 
race. Considering their condition and state of 
environment, as many among them save money 
as among the white working people. Wherever 
northern men have taken the reins of industry 
in hand to any extent, or where any material 
advancement has been made, wages have in- 
creased, and a more hopeful condition has 
opened for the Negro. 

COMMERCIAL GROWTH.— One cause 
of the scarcity of labor and increase in wages 
at times, in many localities, is the great activity 
in the lumber and mining districts. Another 
cause is the tremendous growth which the var- 
ious cities and industrial centers are undergoing. 
We quote a few statistics from Washington, con- 
taining this information: "The commercial 
growth of the South in the last quarter century 
has been little short of phenomenal. 

Capital invested in factories has increased 
from $257,000,000 in 1880 to $1,500,000,000 in 
1906. The products of factories have increased 
in the same time from $457,000,000 to $1,750,- 



48 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

000,000. The farm products have grown from 
$660,000,000 to $1,750,000,000. Capital in cot- 
ton mills has leaped from $21,000,000 to $225,- 
000,000. The most stupendous increase of all 
has been from 397,000 tons of pig iron produced 
to 3,100,000 tons, and from 179,000 barrels of 
petroleum to 42,495,000." Later statistics show 
that the manufacturing interests have grown to 
$2,600,000,000, and the farm interests to $2,200,- 
000,000. The exports from the South in 1908 
were $648,000,000. 

THE NEGRO DISCOVERS HE IS 
NEEDED. — The Negro man has discovered 
the undisputable fact that he is needed, that he 
is an absolute necessity, that he is a wheel of 
great importance in the machinery of industry. 
And there seems to be a wide-spread belief 
among them that the white man owes them a 
great deal for services rendered by their fore- 
fathers, long and faithful, during slavery days. 
And many harboring this corrupt idea are in- 
clined to collect, promiscuously, as much of this 
imaginary debt as they can, without arousing 
too much animosity on the part of the unfortun- 
ate debtor. We have found small boys who 
religiously believe that the "white folks sure owe 
us ones Sv:;mething." This sentiment undoubt- 
edly causes a great deal of shiftless and unsatis- 
factory service among this class, and a great deal 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 49 

of the Stealing to which the lower class of 
servants are yet addicted. During slavery days 
slaves were often compelled to steal from their 
masters, and it is an inbred proclivity still pre- 
valent. This is undoubtedly one reason so many 
believe that the white folks owe them a living. 
And it is not out of place to say here that a 
similar sentiment prevails among a class of 
whites, just as pernicious, who claim that 
another class owes them a living. 

In every age and in every country where so- 
ciety is divided into two classes as in the South, 
and especially if one of them belongs to a dif- 
ferent race, these existing conditions have pre- 
vailed. It is only when all have been more en- 
lightened, and a feeling of self-respect has been 
created, that this feeling of dependence and 
covetousness can be removed. 

HE GOES TO THE CITY.— Since the city 
offers the colored men better opportunities, they 
have taken advantage of it, and have left the 
plantations, where they lived in tolerable har- 
mony with nature, under the soft southern 
skies, for the whirl, smoke, excitement and 
trouble-breeding environment of city life. We 
believe that this environment, more than any 
other one thing in the Negro race, is the cause 
of the present restless, turbulent and degenerate 
element among these people. We give reasons 



hO HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

in support of the above statement in succeeding 
chapters. They have taken it for granted that 
all the worst vices the whites are addicted to 
must be participated in in order to be up to date 
— in every respect like a white man and woman. 
And this contaminating influence of the con- 
gested city element is rapidly spreading through- 
out the country. 

WE DEPLORE THE FACT that the coun- 
try Negro has been, and is today, allowed to 
concentrate in the cities, and is fast accumulat- 
ing a class of which the better men and women 
of both races are thoroughly ashamed. We have 
said allowed. We do not mean by this that the 
Negro should have been kept out of the cities 
by force, and evenly distributed throughout the 
country. He is free, or at least should be, to 
go where he chooses ; but still that which is for 
the best and highest interest of all concerned 
should undoubtedly be done. We do not believe 
that the young people, who have been brought 
up in the crowded city quarters, could be in- 
duced to exchange them for the green fields, and 
the health and strength of country life until a 
more healthy sentiment is created. Many thou- 
sands are annually dying of consumption and 
other fatal diseases in these festering slums, and 
other thousands are leading lives of utter de- 
pravity, damning both soul and body, sapping 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 51 

the very vitality of the race. After careful in- 
vestigation we are led to say with the strongest 
emphasis; that soviethin(j must be done to check 
the doivnicard tendency of the race in these city 
slums. The white race is as much afifected as 
the black. A white child is exposed to the same 
disease the colored nurse is subject to. And in 
whatever other capacity the colored serve the 
white, the same is true. 

Sufficient inducements ought to be offered to 
those who are yet in the country, and thereby 
retain their services in the rural districts. As 
Booker T. Washington and others are doing, 
they should receive better knowledge of agri- 
culture, be encouraged to improve their sur- 
roundings, beautify their homes, and make their 
habitations more comfortable and attractive, and 
conducive to higher moral and spiritual senti- 
ments. There are tvvo sides to this question, as 
to every other. The planter has in many in- 
stances abused his power. He has made the lot 
of the good colored man intolerable by his grab- 
bing proclivity. It has been so with the Negro 
in the past, and is so today — work, year in, year 
out, on the plantation, w^ith the hope of better 
material conditions becoming fainter and fainter 
as he grows older, till the last ray of the setting 
sun of his life's ambitions are obscured by the ut- 
ter darkness of despair, and the poor mortal tot- 



52 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ters along in an aimless, hopeless life, until his old 
aching bones are gathered up and dropped into 
a hole in the ground in some obscure, weed- 
covered, desolate graveyard. His skin is black, 
his ideas of life are crude; yet, no man, who 
spends a life of toil and devotion, fighting the 
wolf of poverty continually to keep his wife and 
little ones together in the little hut in the lane, 
provided for him by his master, is destitute of 
ambition; is not without a desire to achieve 
something, if an opportunity to do so would pre- 
sent itself in a tangible manner. Be man cul- 
tured or uncultured, civilized or savage, black 
or white, he has an inborn desire to achieve 
something. This poor Negro farmer saw an 
opportunity to leave, and he left the old planta- 
tion behind — the land of the oppressed — and 
now greater slavery threatens his children — 
moral and physical degeneracy. 

A CRY FOR MORE EFFICIENT 
LABOR. — At present a cry for more efficient 
labor is often heard in different sections of the 
South, especially in the rural districts, which the 
Negro is leaving. 

The planter cannot afTford to pay high wages 
for incompetent labor and make it pay. It has been 
said that if ten million Italians and other for- 
eigners could displace the Negro population of 
the South, this country would soon blossom like 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



53 




And the poor mortal totters along in an aimless, hopeless life until 
his old aching bones are gathered up and dropped into a hole in the 
ground in some obscure, weed-covered, desolate eravevard. Taken from 
life. 



M HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

a rose — so far exceeding present prosperity that 
no comparison could be made. Here, it is 
claimed, are the natural resources — lumber, coal, 
iron, and shipping facilities by rail and water; 
agricultural possibilities, climate, etc. — to make 
it great. But we believe that the dream of popu- 
lating the South with European labor will never 
be fully realized. We have it from personal 
investigation, and from men greatly interested 
in the material progress of this country, that 
experiments made with Italians have proven 
destructive to the highest social, moral and po- 
litical interests of the country. They relieve 
the labor market where placed, it is true; but is 
this the only interest, prompted by the avarice 
of the large planters and others, that we should 
deem worthy of consideration? We would far 
rather live in an exclusively colored settlement 
than one exclusively Italian, and we have our 
reasons. 

All that we have seen of the Italian settlements 
points to nothing conducive to a higher mode of 
living, and more self-pride in the beautifying 
and building up of their surroundings, than what 
we find among the lower class of Negroes. We 
have also noticed that they and the Negroes 
often mix, and it does not produce a very de- 
sirable progeny. This country needs more Ger- 
mans, French, Swiss, English and Scotch; first, 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 5-5 

to take advantage of the agricultural possibil- 
ities; and, secondly, to fill this country with a 
reliable, thrifty stock. 

FOREIGN IMMIGRATION WILL 
PROVE A BLESSING TO THE NEGRO. 
— A far-sighted editorial appeared in the Odd 
Fellows Journal (colored) of Philadelphia, in 
June, 14, 1906, which inculcates a hope as well 
as a prophetic truth, well worth repeating here. 
It is as follows: "An attempt is made to turn 
the tide of foreign immigration southward. We 
hope it will succeed. Many persons seem to see 
in it disaster for the Negro; we see in it the 
greatest hope. There is no reason why all of 
our race should live in one section of the country 
any more than another. We admit that in fac- 
tories and in the skilled mechanical trades, 
colored men cannot find employment in the 
North.' While this is true, it is also true that 
the great majority of our people in the South 
are farm hands, and there is no locality in the 
North or West where a colored farm hand can- 
not get larger wages than he gets anywhere in 
the South. There is not a colored loafer in New 
York, Philadelphia, Boston or Chicago, who 
could not find plenty of farm work to do at good 
wages if he would only consent to do it. It must 
be admitted by all who have made any study of 
the matter that the more American any locality 



56 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

is the greater the color prejudice that exists. The 
South is the most American section of our 
country, because but few foreigners have settled 
there in more than a hundred years. 

So long as the direct descendants of the pres- 
ent southerner control the South the colored man 
will have a hard time. If the great tide of for- 
eign immigration shall be turned southward, in 
another generation, by reason of the mixture of 
blood, there will be a new southern man to all 
intents and purposes. The foreign laborer will 
not put up with the treatment which the colored 
laborer receives. They will not be cheated out 
of the crops by dishonest landlords and country 
store keepers. They will be saving and buying 
land. The lazy southern white man will not be 
able to withstand their industrious competition, 
and will have to move out or disappear as a re- 
sult of intermarriage. All this will produce a 
new southern white man. In this is the black 
man's only hope. Mr. Ogden and the members 
of the Southern Educational Board think that 
a new man can be created out of the poor white 
man of the South by education. We do not be- 
lieve it. Let the foreigners come in large num- 
bers, buy farms and plant industries, and the 
white man who lives for the purpose of 'keeping 
the Negro down,' will gradually disappear." 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 57 

THE NEGRO MUST BE TREATED 
WITH AN OBJECT.— We have the so-called 
''unsurmountable obstacle" to contend with — 
the Negro folk. The most hated, abused des- 
pised, by certain classes of whites, in these free 
United States of any country in the world. They 
w^ere not found in the native African jungle as 
they are, but were made what they are today by 
the grace of God and the lash upon their bare 
backs in the hands of a self-styled, domineering 
aristocracy, and concomitant evils. It ought to 
now be the business of every conscientious white 
person to overlook the many faults of this des- 
pised people, and try to do them good by firm 
and persistent examples in the arts of justice as 
well as industry. In nine cases out of ten you 
will gain their confidence and best efforts in 
usefulness by pursuing this course. 



58 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

CHAPTER III 

THE "smart negro." 

HOW KNOWLEDGE SPREAD.— "I have 
no use for a smart nigger." This is a common 
phrase now often used by an irresponsible popu- 
lace. Now, what may constitute a "smart nig- 
ger," if there is such a being for us to introduce 
in these pages? Is this term applied to all edu- 
cated Afro-Americans, or to a certain class only? 
We shall soon see. First, he is supposed to be 
one who has come in contact with the outer 
world; one who has left his rural surroundings, 
the ancient traditions, the submission and obe- 
dience to the "old Massa in de big house on de 
plantation befo de wah." Secondly, it is the 
offspring of this old slave class now being edu- 
cated and made mentally independent, and to 
a marked degree self-reliant. The process of 
awakening of the class above referred to has been 
long in progress. And in this connection it is 
well for us to remember that in case slavery had 
been prolonged to this day it would have been 
impossible, even under the most adverse condi- 
tions, to keep all the Negro people in ignorance 
and illiteracy. The history of slavery testifies 
to this fact. These people were the quickest of 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



59 



any barbarous race on earth to perceive the touch 
of the magic rod of civilization, not excepting 
the Japanese in their willingness to learn and 
rise. This characteristic was discovered by the 
great patriarchal planters long ere slavery was 
abolished in the South. 

THE OLD PLANTATION SLAVE 
SCHOOLS.— In Louisiana, for instance, they 
conceived a plan of educating their slaves for 
more efficient service, that was so wise and en- 
lightened, and it is proved, so substantially bene- 
ficial, that it would be well to take it into con- 
sideration, at least in some particulars, in the 
study of the present race problem. Long before 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written, and while 
yet great slave-holding magnates regarded slav- 
ery as an establishment beyond the reach of social 
agitation or political vicissitude, wise and kindly 
members of the ruling class had conceived and 
set in motion a system whereby slavery could be 
robbed of its most repulsive aspects, and be 
transformed into an agency of exaltation. These 
men were not doctrinaires, but they were human- 
itarians. They loved their slaves, who formed 
a large part of their active life and thought 
and they felt it their duty to lift them out of 
the mire of degradation and subjection, if such 
a thing were possible. Thus it came about that 
schools were established on hundreds of planta- 



60 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

tions ; nothing like our modern schools, of course^ 
but just the plainest and simplest agencies of ex- 
periment and observation. The main object and 
idea were to disclose the special latent gifts, pro- 
clivity or talent of the scholars, and to cultivate 
and mature them to their highest degree. Special 
gifts and tendencies were ascertained, developed, 
perfected. And so it followed that thousands 
of slaves became bricklayers, carpenters, black- 
smiths, tailors, engineers, sugar bailers, artisans 
of every kind, including even musicians. In 
many parts of the country there may yet be found 
ancient buildings, entirely erected by skilled 
slave labor. They were permitted to pursue 
their vocations in freedom, merely paying to 
their masters a small percentage on the assessed 
value of the individual. In all respects they 
were at liberty. They lived where they pleased, 
could acquire their own homes if they wished, 
and accumulate their own property; and in all 
these respects were protected by law. It is said, 
and no doubt true, that the Negro who dwelt 
under this dispensation, seventy-five and more 
years ago enjoyed more actual freedom, and re- 
ceived more substantial and respectful considera- 
tion, than do his descendants today, who are ex- 
cluded from many branches of industry by white 
labor. Long before the war there were a few 
schools for Negroes in Delaware, Virginia, and 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 61 

Other slave states further south. Free Negro 
children often attended the white schools. In- 
struction was given them everywhere, often by 
members of their master's family, even in viola- 
tion of the existing slave laws. And where edu- 
cation was totally denied them they still pos- 
sessed their native capabilities, their natural 
shrewdness, which no master could pluck out 
of their soul. 

CHIVALROUS SPIRITS. — Chivalrous 
spirits often manifested themselves in their inter- 
course with their superiors, especially when 
treated with kind consideration by them. Their 
faithfulness was often beyond computation. Let 
us relate just one case here to illustrate our point: 
In South Carolina we came across seven sons 
who own seven farms. Back of these farms is a 
bit of history interesting to all students of human 
nature. Before the emancipation of the slaves 
the owner of the father of these seven sons was 
challenged to fight a duel. The old slave heard 
of this, and knowing his master was a poor shot, 
went the night before and killed the man who 
made the challenge. Upon investigation it was 
found that the old Negro had done this on his 
own accord. Of course there was no way to 
save his life, and he never tried to save it. After 
slaying the would-be slayer of his master, he 
immediately made the confession and gave him- 



62 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

self up to be hanged. We abhor the crime; we 
revolt against it; but the fact remains uppermost 
that the poor old slave, by weighing his life and 
the life of his master in the balance, decided 
that the life of his master was of more im- 
portance than that of the poor old chattel he 
was. When the master died he willed to each 
of the old slave's children a nice little farm, and 
we have heard it said that he did a just deed. 

THEY ARE BOUND TO RISE.— Cases of 
a similar nature could be multiplied indefin- 
itely; and some of the most heroic deeds done 
in the olden times were unrecorded and unre- 
warded. Thus we maintain that a truly worthy 
class of men, bond or free, of whatever color, 
will rise sooner or later and come to the top, 
and will not be downed. We recently read the 
account of an old northern soldier, who was all 
over this country during the war. He speaks 
of the underground railroad and especially of 
the remarkable accurate knowledge displayed 
by the colored people, about "Lincum and his 
sojes," during the war. Knowing these people 
we can well imagine that every word spoken by 
southern whites, concerning the then important 
question, was carefully stowed away by slaves, 
who made every effort to hear and learn, absorb 
and repeat what they heard. Thus knowledge of 
existing conditions spread, opinions were 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 63 

formed, compared and passed on. Southern 
whites, who were opposed to slavery, did some- 
thing to help spread a knowledge of things 
among them. Now, if these people had such 
a fair knowledge of "Lincum and his sojes," so 
many years ago, what knowledge of Lincum and 
his sojes ought not their children possess today? 
The more wc investigate this matter the more 
are we convinced that there is a process of evolu- 
tion going on among these people that cannot 
be ignored or suppressed; and if our colored 
reader believes that this process ought to be 
carelessly considered, with regard to a better 
understanding and closer relation with the white 
race, he had better deport himself to the haunts 
of his fathers and shed his clothes of civilization 
in the jungle. 

MAY AS WELL CONFESS IT.— We 
(North and South) may as well make an honest 
confession: The Negro, the Afro-American, the 
Colored Caucasian, are fast outgrowing all 
bounds of what a white populace in America, 
deep down in its heart, believes they ought to 
be. Among them are organizations of tre- 
mendous influence and binding character. The 
idea, if entertained by northerners, that the Ne- 
gro is not organized, cannot make a united effort 
in any line if he desires, is not true. When the 
best interests of his people are at stake, he can. 



64 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

if he choose, stand united, organized, ready for 
an emergency if it should arise. There is not 
only organization, but a tremendous amount of 
brain and executive ability back of it. 

NOT WEAK AND HELPLESS.— Out- 
wardly he may yet appear weak and helpless, but 
in years hence, when ignorance and the Leop- 
ard's Spots have entirely disappeared, we shall 
see him in full possession of his aspiring rights. 
It is not the church or- religion, which has done 
and is still doing a great deal, that has alone 
wrought these conditions. Schools bring him 
enlightenment, and fraternal organizations, such 
as Free Masonry, Odd Fellowship, etc., have 
taught him the trick of how to cement his best 
interests. Few whites have any idea of the uni- 
versal understanding, the dominant current of 
interest, which prevails among many of them. 
They may be despised, abused, misused and ig- 
nored, by the class just referred to, but as to 
weakness — in many sections of the South they 
are not to be considered as weak and helpless 
as may be supposed, or as may appear to a casual 
observer on the surface. 

WILL NOT SUBMIT TO WILES OF 
WHITE RELATIVE— They are by nature not 
a vicious, treacherous people ; on the contrary we 
find them rather open-hearted, kindly disposed, 
sympathetic. For example, we will relate and 



w 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



65 



-7T^ 



% ^^wits'tttf.f^.. ;.;-.^ 






^ 




f ^ 

4 



I V xV 



T 







Syjm^im 



li^ 



A WHIPPING INCIDENT. 
'Vardaman's Ideal of Justice." Taken from life. 



66 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

illustrate an incident that came under our ob- 
servation on a plantation in Alabama. A large, 
strong Negro had committed some misdemeanor, 
was tied to the whipping-log and whipped by his 
boss. When he was untied he straightened up 
and said in his most polite demeanor: "Boss, gib 
me chew 'bacca." This is a fair sample of a 
rural character of the black belt; but this ad- 
mirable good humor could, of course, not be uni- 
versally applied. The mulatto and other speci- 
mens of the white man's paternity, which seem 
more prominent in towns and cities, and which 
have more nearly the characteristics of the white 
man, do not submit so willingly to the wiles of 
their white relatives, without feeling the blood 
of their parentage boil in their veins. This black 
brother may feel the same sting, but refrain from 
manifesting it. He is the embryonic gentleman. 
WOULD BE NO RACE QUESTION.— 
We do not hesitate to say here that we are fully 
convinced of the fact, that if the white man had 
absolutely abstained from crossing with the 
Negro on this continent, there would be no race 
question to solve in America for many years to 
come. An absolutely pure-blood African is hard 
to find in many parts of the South. It is indeed 
a case of self-approbation. The white man's 
blood in the black man's veins cries today for, 
and instinctively demands, recognition; and it 



OR THE FADING LEOPARDS SPOTS W 

would be a careless observer, indeed, who does 
not discern this fact. 

THE WHITE MAX'S BLOOD— A well- 
known business man of Mobile, Alabama, told us 
years a^o that the only tanujihle hope of the 
colored man in America was "the white man's 
blood in his veins." At the time we could not 
yet sympathize with such a, then to us, shocking 
view; but we have long since realized the undis- 
pu table fact conveyed in that statement — viz., 
that assimilation by amalgamation will prove 
the only ultimate settlement of the race question 
in this country, provided, however, that other 
legitimate means be employed therewith, and 
scientificallv carried out. 

THE WHITE MAX STANDS AC- 
CUSED BEFORE GOD.— At present the 
southern white man stands accused before God 
and all mankind. His colored offspring are 
legion, and largely disowned and ignored by 
him. A crime has been committed. The keen 
knife of justice must at last cut to the quick! 
The criminal has gone free, and they of innocent 
birth have often borne the punishment at the 
hands of the evil-doer. But, nevertheless, we 
believe justice will ultimately prevail. History 
repeats itself. Let such men as Tillman, Varda- 
man, Dixon, Watson, and many others cry: 
"Keep the nigger in his place." Let the north- 



68 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ern man settle throughout the South at a rapid 
rate, as he is doing at present, and have his say. 
A real American (smart) Negro is not imported 
stock. It is homebred, right down in the woods, 
on the prair.ie, in the city and town — everywhere 
in the broad Southland. He is a new creation, 
as Luther Burbank would say; the result of 
many years of intimate relations with his white 
superiors ; and he is not a real Negro. Can these 
superiors today ignore and condemn the result 
of this relationship? The "smart nigger" is 
ninety per cent a man of marked Caucasian char- 
acteristics and not a Negro at all, in the true 
sense of the word: but a man of color, a true 
Colored Caucasian, the son or grandson of a 
white parent. 

To our mind the "absolute separation" of the 
' races, so much spoken of and agitated at present, 
and believed in by some prominent colored and 
white men, should have been absolute before so 
many hundreds of thousands of mulattoes and 
quadroons were born. Let us get out from be- 
hind the mask of deceit, once for all, and tell 
the naked truth in this regard. 

NEGRO CANNOT BE DEPORTED.— 
Such talk as the deportation or absolute separa- 
tion of the colored people is too absurd to think 
of seriously. 
' A certain criminal class, dangerous and un- 



OR THE FADING LEOTARD'S SPOTS 69 

profitable to the State may be thus treated, but 
not respectable citizens. The Chicago Chron- 
icle said some time ago: "Somehow, in some 
way, the white people of the South and the 
Negroes have got to live together. A modus 
Vivendi must be established, for if anything Is 
certain it is that all propositions to colonize the 
Negroes or to deport them are impracticable. 
There is no place to which to send the Negroes, 
and if there were such a place the Negroes 
would not go. 

Southern politicians like Senator Tillman, 
and southern newspapers like the Charleston 
News and Courier talk airily about the separa- 
tion of the races, but neither Mr. Tillman nor 
the editor of the Charleston News really believe 
that the thing is possible. This is because any 
rational man must realize that the task of evict- 
ing 10,000,000 of people from the land in which 
they were born would mean wholesale slaughter 
— slaughter so appalling that not the most rabid 
negiophobe would invoke it. The Negroes cer- 
tainly would resist the efifort to deport them. We 
need not go into the right or wrong of the mat- 
ter at all to be certain that the blacks of the 
South, born there and citizens of the country 
for several generations, would to a great extent 
resist with force an efifort to expatriate them. If 
only one in ten of them resisted, the struggle to 



70 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

evict them would be the bloodiest in the history 
of mankind. The hunted man defends his home 
to the .'death. But all these probabilities and 
suppositions are idle in the face of the fact that 
there is no available place to w^hich to deport 
the Negroes. Liberia is too poor and w^eak to 
undertake the assimilation of such a tremendous 
new population. German South Africa has 
enough trouble with her blacks without wanting 
any more. The British possessions in Africa 
are equally averse to the immigration of more 
Negroes. 

No place on the wide globe offers a welcome 
to the American Negro, especially if he were 
to come by hundreds of thousands. He was 
brought to this country by compulsion, we may 
be sure that he will not leave it through per- 
suasion. 

Moreover, in spite of Senator Tillman and his 
newspaper echoes, the South will not permit 
the Negroes to leave, even if they were disposed 
to do so. Who would replace the Negro in 
southern agriculture and manufactures? Where 
would the South get the men to cultivate its cot- 
ton and wheat and sugar and oats? Until these 
questions are practically answered we may ig- 
nore the deportation plan. 

The Negro will not leave the South for two 
reasons — first, that there is nowhere for him to 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 71 

go; and secondly, because the southern whites 
would not permit him to go upon any considera- 
tion."* 

We ask this sensible question : Can any people 
have a more legitimate claim on any country 
than the colored man of the white race? 

AN ENDLESS RELATIONSHIP BE- 
TWEEN THE RACES IN THE SOUTH.— 
The American Colored Caucasian is distinctly 
a native of this country. He could not and 
would not recognize any other. His relation- 
ship often runs like an endless chain from his 
white parent through succeeding generations. 
Where could that chain be broken, should the 
deportation scheme be inaugurated by the state 
or government? His mother, grandmother or 
great grandmother was a Negress, no doubt, but 
does that make him a criminal, or a confirmed 
anarchist to be banished from American soil? 
No, not if there is an infinitesimal tendency to 
justice left in the dominant white American. It 
is too well known that the greatest men and 
women of African descent in America, are the 
direct or indirect ofifspring of some of the best 
and bluest blood in the country. Separate all 
these from the Negro race, to which they do no 
more belong than to the Caucasian race, and the 



*See "An Optimistic View of the Negro Question" in our 
resuiP". 



72 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




3t ripesWitffoutStkrS. 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARDS SPOTS 73 

black sons of Africa, in this country, would be 
a lonesome fraction of acquired civilization. 
The fact is undisputablc, the black man cannot 
get along without his brown and yellow brother; 
neither does the white brother care to separate 
himself entirelyfromhiscolored kin. If thereis to 
be any separation, it ouL^ht to be a thorough one. 
There ought to be a law prohibiting the black- 
skinned Negro from intermarrying with the 
white-skinned Caucasian Negress, and vice 
versa. If the frequent mixing and mating of 
these classes is not intermarriage, what is it? 
The southern lawmaker ought to look into this 
matter, and prevent the Negro from further mix- 
ing with the mi.xed, so the mixed may only mix 
with the mixed, that their colored offspring may 
not lose their identity. If he prohibits one class 
from mixing, he should be fair and prohibit all 
mixing. 

GIVE CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE.— 
Negro writers often misplace credit in lauding 
men and women who have some Negro blood 
in them, and who have achieved success in life; 
attributing that success or intellectual ability en- 
tirely to the race. We will take an example out 
of a book written by a man who is himself of 
mixed blood. He starts out in giving the gen- 
ealogy of a certain well-known man as follows; 
"His father was a white man, and his mother 



74 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

was three parts white." He ends by saying, "He 
was a life-long Republican, and a man of whom 
his race should be proud." What race? His 
own (Colored Caucasian) race; the black or 
the white? Which? This writer has, of course, 
the big, black race in mind. He would make the 
reader believe that this man's talent or intellect 
is all "black." But if he really means to convey 
the idea that this man's own people, the Colored 
Caucasian race, should be proud of him, then 
he gives credit to the ability, capacity and in- 
tellect of this wonderful new race, where credit 
is due. 

When the Negro, like any other race, is 
mixed with Caucasian or any other foreign 
blood, his greatness or capabilities can no more 
be attributed to the black blood than to the for- 
eign blood in him. When Negro writers speak 
of the wonderful advancement of the Negro, 
let them be fair and not palm off on a reading 
public the remarkable intellectual growth and 
capability of a mixed people as all "black great- 
ness." When we speak of Negro greatness, we 
ought to confine ourselves within the bounds of 
genuine, unmixed magnanimity, and not sand- 
wich in every fair-skinned man and woman the 
southerner calls "smart nigger." 

We have said before that ninety per cent of 
the so-called "smart niggers" of superior cap- 



OR THE TADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 75 

ability are of mixed breed; and that this asser- 
tion we wish our readers to bear in mind. Also 
the further fact that the most progressive people 
in the world have always been more or less of 
mixed stock — that progress and commingling 
go hand in hand. 

SOME SMAR 1 NEGROES.— We wish we 
could give several hundred names, emphasizing 
the foregoing facts, but we can only give the 
names of a small number of men and women 
here, owing to space. Our readers will kindly 
remember that we give the below names merely 
as illustrations, and that there are hundreds of 
others equally as worthy of a place among the 
noted men and women of mixed blood in the 
race. 

Honorable Frederick Douglass was consid- 
ered the most noted Negro in America. One- 
half Caucasian. Great orator, anti-slavery editor, 
marshal of the District of Columbia, Recorder 
of Deeds of Columbia, a leading Republican. 
Born about 1817, in Maryland. His second wife 
was a white woman. 

Professor Booker T. Jf^ashington, one of the 
foremost educators in America. One-half or 
more Caucasian. President of the Tuskegee 
Normal and Industrial school; champion of 
Negro industrial education, noted orator and 
successful financier and teacher. He was born 



76 HOOrS RACE ASSIMILATION 

at Hale's Ford Post-office, Franklin county, Vir- 
ginia, April i8, 1856. His mother was the cook 
on the slave plantation, and named Jane Fur- 
guson. His owner was James Borroughs. 

Honorable P. B. S. Pinchback, successful 
Negro politician. Lieutenant Governor of 
Louisiana, United States senator, lawyer, prom- 
inent Republican, man of wealth. His mother 
was known as a mulatto who may have had some 
Indian blood. His father. Major Pinchback, a 
Mississippian, was the owner of his mother, by 
whom he had ten children. In 1836 Major 
Pinchback went to Philadelphia with his slave 
wife and manumitted her. She remained with 
him after her freedom. 

Honorable Theophile T. Allain, State's sen- 
ator of Louisiana, agitator of educational meas- 
ures and internal improvements in his state. 
Politician and business man. Born October ist, 
1845, on the Australian plantation; his mother 
being a, pretty brown woman, his father, her 
owner, was Sosthene Allain, a millionaire of 
great culture. This gentleman set aside the cus- 
tom of the land and treated his little brown wife 
with the greatest respect, surrounding her with 
all the comforts and pleasures at his command. 
He loved his son Theophile so intensely that he 
often refused to dine without him at the table, 
and when traveling abroad he accompanied him. 



* ■' ' — ^ 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 77 



It. 










■I 



^ 







>^^ 
^ 




A GROUP OF "SMART NEGROES" BORN" DURING SLAVERY. 



1. Robert Harlan. 

3. P. B. S. Pinchback. 



2. J. T. Settle. 
4. T. T. Allain. 



78 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, D. D. LL.D.^ 
bishop of the A. M. E. Church. Philosopher, 
politician, orator, eminent lecturer, author, in- 
tense race man. United States chaplain, etc. He 
was born near Newsberry Court-House, South 
Carolina, February ist, 1833. He is the oldest 
child of Howard and Sarah Turner. His 
father's ancestry was but little known to him as 
his mother was a German white woman, but on 
his mother's side it is well known, she being the 
youngest daughter of an African king's lineage. 

Rev. Lemuel Hayes, A. M., who was born in 
1753 of an African father and white mother, and 
who was a distinguished theologian — the first 
titled man of Negro blood in America — should 
not be forgotten by his people or the white race 
as a remarkable man of mixed African and Cau- 
casian blood. A historian speaks of this early 
admixture of the two races as follows : "A native 
African and a white woman! 'Holy horror!' 
cries somebody. 'How curious they did not hang 
him.' They were honorably married and he 
was popular. The black face was a thing of 
beauty to his wife, who saw a man with an in- 
tellectual soul and loved him. Love laughs at 
locks and bars, and even the color of a man's 
skin. Both parties will cross the line." 

Honorable Josiah T. Settle, A.B., A.M., 
LL.B. An able lawyer, eloquent orator, legis- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 79 

lator. Was assistant attorney-general of Shelby- 
county, Tennessee, etc. He was born September 
30, 1850, on Cumberland Mountains, while his 
father and mother were en route from North 
Carolina to Mississippi. His parents were 
named Josiah and Nancy Settle, Nancy being 
the slave wife of Mr. Settle, who belonged to 
the famous Settle family of Rockingham, North 
Carolina. He had no white wife at the time he 
began to raise a family with his slave. After 
a few years residence in Mississippi, he manu- 
mitted his children and their mother. But he 
was informed that he could not remain in Mis- 
sissippi, as the laws of that state forbade ''free 
niggers" to reside therein. In March, 1856, he 
carried them to Hamilton, Ohio, where he 
bought them a house and located them, spend- 
ing his summers with them and his winters on 
his southern plantation. Then another difficulty 
arose. His northern neighbors informed him 
that he could not continue his relations with the 
woman unless he married her. He answered: 
"That is what I have always desired to do." In 
1858 the mother of his children became his law- 
ful v/ife in the presence of their children, and 
by that act also legitimate. He espoused the 
Union cause when the war broke out, and re- 
mained with his colored wife until his death 
in 1869. This is one of the most beautiful ex- 



80 HOLM'S RACE ASSIIVIILATION 

amples of the love and loyalty of a southern 
gentleman, for his children and their mother 
of color, that we can find in the history of that 
dark day. It reminds us of a number of like 
cases, as we have found them at the present time 
in many parts of the South. We regret to say 
that this country is just as much in the dark 
thraldom of slavery for the colored woman who 
has found her affinity in a white man, as it was 
in the days gone by, as far as a legal union is 
concerned, and her rights before the law as a 
legal wife. 

Colonel Robert Harlan, born in Mecklenburg 
county, Virginia, December 12, 18 16. His father 
was a white man and his mother three parts 
white. He was a shrewd, persevering business 
man, a legislator and public-spirited man. He 
resided in England a number of years. 

Samuel Jefferson Davis, successful business 
man, a millionaire. Born on the Davis planta- 
tion in Mississippi, in 1840. When Jefferson 
Davis was chosen to the highest office in the Con- 
federacy his slave, Sam, went to Milledgeville, 
the first capital, with him. At the close of the 
war, Jefferson Davis gave him $500.00 and told 
him to move to the North to live his new life 
as a free man. Sam obeyed and is now one of 
the richest Negroes in the country. 

Rev. Bartlett Taylor, a financier and one of 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



81 



the great pioneer Christian workers in the 
Negro race. He was born in Henderson county, 
Kentucky, February 14, 181 5. His mother be- 




longed to Jonathan Taylor, who was her master 
and his father. 

Bishop James Varick, the founder of the Af- 
rican Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, was 
born about 1750. It has been difficult to tell to 



82 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

what nationality he belonged. It is certain, how- 
ever, that he was of Dutch extraction. His 
father was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, but 
moved to New York with his parents when a 
child. It is certain that through the veins of 
Bishop Varick flowed the blood of the Negro, 
the Dutchman and the Indian. The great dome 
of his cranium shows him to have been the pos- 
sessor of a remarkable mind. In him seemed to 
have centered the characteristics of three races, 
in that early day. Rev. B. F. Wheeler, D.D., who 
is the author of a book on the "Varick Family," 
has this to say of James Varick's genealogy: 
"In the history of New York city the rich and 
distinguished Varick family has figured most 
conspicuously in its social, political and com- 
mercial life for the last two centuries. One of 
the members of this cultured Varick family was 
mayor of New York city. The Varick Bank of 
New York city is named in honor of, and con- 
trolled by this same strong and influential fam- 
ily. Varick street, on which I have walked 
many times, which runs from Clarkson street 
to Canal, is also named after this distinguished 
family. It is possible that Varick's mother at 
one time was a slave in the family." This same 
biographer of the bishop states that the hair of, 
this man was straight and his beard curly. 

Among the leading colored Caucasian women 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 83 

we would mention Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, 
Mrs. Josephine St. P. Ruffin, Olivia D. Wash- 
ington, Fannie Barrier Williams, and a host of 
others, equally noted. 

THE FULL-BLOODED NEGRO HAS 
TALENT. — In this chapter we have perhaps 
made the impression that we do not give any 
credit to the ability of the full-blood African 
who has exhibited wonderful mental capacity 
and natural capability in many instances in this 
country. \\'c wish to say that we give full 
credit to the pure-blood Negro, for all that he 
has done in the way of exhibiting his ability to 
obtain a full grasp, in many instances, of the 
learning of the Caucasian. He has by no means 
been entirely exempt from becoming a "smart 
nigger." In each succeeding generation he 
climbs higher and comes nearer the recognized 
standard of the Caucasian mind. 

Extraordinary ability is rare in any race, and 
it is not confined to any one race, but is about 
equally divided. It may be latent in the full- 
blood Negro in America, to a large extent, but 
it is by no means absent — no, not even in the 
wildest African savage. ALmy African slaves 
brought to this country had the high intellectual 
forehead of "Uncle Tom" in Uncle Tom's Cabin, 
and these "niggers" were always considered dan- 
gerous by the slave dealers. Before they set their 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




MOSES MEETS PRINCESS THARBIS. 

Moses, the great Hebrew law-giver, conquered, by means of 
love, the impregnable Ethiopian stronghold and married Fnncess 
Tharbis. 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 85 

foot on American soil they were ordained by 
Nature to become "smart niggers." By some 
mysterious process of evolution Nature had al- 
ready endowed them with a marked mental ca- 
pacity. But was it of late formation — this su- 
perior intellectuality in the savage African? We 
think not. The same dark-skinned people had 
possession of it before the pyramids were built. 
We do not know the ancestry of Phillis 
Wlieatley, the little African slave girl, who pos- 
sessed such a wonderful intellect. She may have 
had the blood of Princess Tharbis, the daughter 
of the powerful Ethiopian king whom Moses 
married, in her veins, for all we know. 

We do not know the ancestry of Toussaint 
L'Ouverture, that Negro soldier, statesman and 
martvr, who stands without a parallel in the 
history of the modern Negro race. He may 
have had the blood of a great Pharaoh coursing 
through his veins. 

From the earliest history the Nigritic or Ham- 
itic branch of the human family has been the 
"mixer" of the world. In Africa superior blood 
has always mixed with the inferior, whenever 
coming in contact with it. In America it does 
the same. While the direct or indirect admix- 
ture of foreign blood evidently gives superior 
capability in the Negro race in America as well 
as in Africa, there have been some instances in 



86 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

which giant intellects have developed in the ap- 
parently pure-blood Negro of today. The 
Negro is more capable of mental growth, taking 
him as a whole, than any other unmixed primi- 
tive race. But this book is not written to prove 
to our readers that pure blood is an infallible 
sign of mental and physical superiority. Today 
the theory of pure-blooded superiority falls flat. 
Any one advocating it is either prejudiced or a 
fool, or both. This is true of the white race as 
well as the black. It is our object to repudiate 
this theory in this book. The civilized world 
has outgrown it, this country proclaims it a lie; 
ignorance and racial prejudice alone worships 
at the altar of this egotistical, pure-blooded 
shrine in America. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 87 

CHAPTER IV 

EDUCATION AND EQUALITY 

EDUCATION IN A REPUBLIC MEANS 
EQUALITY. — As long as there are some peo- 
ple illiterate and some educated, in a republican 
form of government not thoroughly Christian- 
ized, so long must there necessarily be social 
differences and a marked inequality; but in no 
republic can there be an inequality among its 
citizens when all have obtained an education 
at the expense of the state. Furthermore, there 
can be no radical race distinctions, color lines, 
castes, etc., among its intelligent citizens, as they 
are directly opposed to and detrimental to the 
highest principles and ideals of a true republic. 
The race hatred, as manifested at the present 
time between the white and colored people, is 
the drifting sand under the foundation of our 
republic. If education will not eradicate this 
anti-Republican spirit of race hatred, then this 
flaw in the foundation of our country will wreck 
it, and we shall experience a calamity! 

Equal educational advantages and equal abil- 
ity make all men equal if nothing else can, re- 
gardless of race or color, and to contend other- 
wise betrays rank idiocy or helpless egotism. 



88 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

No people have a moral right to provide educa- 
tional advantages for another people, and then, 
when educated, brand, them as social inferiors 
and political outcasts. When their minds have 
been trained, redeemed, refined, — made capable 
of meeting, on intellectual ground, any man of 
any race on earth, — there can be no inequality. 
What folly it is, indeed, to allow, or be the means 
of allowing, the white, yellow, brown and black- 
est Negro an education, and then become a men- 
ace instead of a blessing to his country? The 
prime object of education, of free schools, is to 
make better citizens. If this object is defeated 
education is a curse and not a blessing, and ought 
to be prohibited for the best interests of the land. 
We wish we could impress, with life-long in- 
delibleness, upon the minds of all whites, North 
and South, the tremendous fact that equal social 
privileges must be extended to the educated 
colored people, as well as political and industrial 
rights, or every opportunity to obtain an educa- 
tion must be absolutely closed to them at once. 
Few people realize what fifty years of struggle 
upwards have accomplished among them. At 
the beginning of the war of the rebellion the 
illiteracy was almost one-hundred per cent; this 
proportion has been decreased to forty per cent 
for the country at large and to forty-five per 
cent in the South. Now that a firm footing has 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 89 

been obtained, what will not another fifty years 
bring forth? There will be little or no illiteracy 
found among them at that time. We wonder 
if there is one intelligent reader of this book, 
no matter how embittered he may be against 
the Negro, Avho believes that ten, twenty, fifty 
million people — educated American people — 
will submit to the base inferiority to which they 
are subjected today. Show us a single instance 
in history where such a thing was possible among 
any people of any nation or race. There is no 
use for the Tillman and Vardaman crowd to try 
to convince the country that the educated Negro 
can be "held in the tongs of the law," as the 
Mississippian puts it. He is bound to procure an 
equal privilege in holding the "law-tongs." A 
horse or mule may be a silent partner in the 
development of a country, but not a thinking, 
educated man. An educated Negro is not a 
mule or other beast of burden for a white man 
to ride. If he attempts to ride him he is bound 
to kick. 

BRUTE FORCE MAY BE USED.— If the 
race prejudice on both sides is an incurable in- 
sanity, if the method we suggest of disposing of 
the undesirable element, and the assimilation 
by legal amalgamation of the eligible is impos- 
sible, then the race problem can settle or solve 
itself only by falling back on the brute or prim- 



90 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

itive condition of man, when ultimately the fit- 
test will survive. Such retrogression is possible, 
but not allowable in this late day. The civilized 
world would protest against the extermination 
of the colored population in America. The 
North would put its big foot of protest on the 
neck of the race hating anarchist and forbid it. 
When a crisis arrives it would not allow either 
race to take advantage of the other. A race war 
would be impossible with the interference of the 
North. No matter how well the South might 
be prepared for the struggle, its cause would go 
down ignominiously. And in case the crisis ar- 
rives when the United States is in a fierce com- 
bat with the Japanese, the cause of the Negro 
would win without the interference of any white- 
skinned nation, and the southern states would 
come permanently under the control of the 
Japanese government. 

THE JAPANESE MAY OWN THE 
SOUTHERN STATES.— If the educated 
colored people of the South are permanently de- 
prived of their citizenship and equal opportun- 
ity by the southern whites, it will only be a mat- 
ter of time when the southern states will fall into 
the hands of the Japanese. The Japanese are 
looking for a footing on American soil. Because 
of their color they have been insulted and ex- 
cluded from the States. Ten million colored 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS ■ 91 

people are in sympathy with this yellow brother, 
and would welcome him with open arms should 
he decide to cast his lot with them. The Japan- 
ese and Negro are the greatest fighters in the 
world, of this we give scientific proof in another 
chapter. 

Should these two races ever unite and amalga- 
mate on American soil, the most powerful na- 
tion the world has ever known would in time 
result. What such a union would mean to the 
American Caucasian is easy to foresee. And, 
for that matter, it is just as easy to foresee the 
possibility of such a union. It is within the 
power of the whites of the country today to pro- 
mote or retard such a union, just as they will it. 
The Negro will love the white man if the white 
man will love him. If education will not fit him 
to take up life with equal opportunities with 
his white brother, should some unknown colored 
brother appear and offer him equality, he will 
accept it with a glad heart. 

The southern states are peculiarly fitted to re- 
ceive the Japanese, and they would feel at home 
among the black, brown and yellow people al- 
ready there, and the Negro would no longer be 
disfranchised and held "with the tongs of the 
law" because of his color. 

The southern white man fears Negro dom- 
ination, but if he believed in fair play toward 



92 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

the educated colored man, and would seek his 
best interest along with his own, there would 
be no reason to fear him. This fear betrays the 
weakness of the white man on the one hand, and 
the power of the Negro on the other. It is only 
the sworn enemy of the colored man who fears 
him. Mr. Jas. K. Vardaman, ex-Governor of 
Mississippi, we have heard make a public con- 
fession that he feared "nigger" domination. 
He is the Negro's enemy, notwithstanding his 
declaration that he is the "niggers' best friend." 
The friendship he bears toward the Negro is 
similar to that of a cat toward a mouse. He 
likes to deride, belittle and damn them; he 
likes to play with them to his heart's content, and 
then — "put them where they belong." 

Should the Japanese obtain control of the 
southern states these men will move out. The 
Jap is as much of a "nigger" to these men as the 
Afro-American. In the Vardaman state Italian 
children were in one instance debarred from the 
public school because of color. They also were 
classed as "niggers," but they contested the claim 
to a black heritage and were finally admitted 
to a white school. 

A GREAT ARMY OF CHILDREN.— We 
see with our mind's eye a great army of children 
— black, brown and yellow — with bright, anx- 
ious, eager, inquiring features — thousands of 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



93 




o 
o 

X 
'J 

X 
3 



33 

< 



o 






94 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

them — distributed all over this great Southland. 
Many very poor, half-clad, barefooted, tramp- 
ing miles throught heat, cold, rain and sun — for 
what purpose? To gain that pearl of great price 
— an education. Their minds are alert. They 
feel, hear and absorb. Their brain fibre is re- 
fined, Casuality and Comparison, the reasoning 
faculties of the mind are enthroned, and like 
a flood of heavenly light knowledge is poured 
into their souls. They see visions of the future, 
when they can take an active part in the affairs 
of life. They have ambitions too, and want to 
rise. One day they find themseJves ready, well 
equipped for their chosen vocations, but they 
hear it: "Stay down there, you nigger, stay 
down!" and they stay down a little longer. 

WHAT THEN ?— President Gompers, of the 
American Federation of Labor, has said: "Labor 
today stands erect, looking the world in the face, 
insisting upon equal treatment and equal op- 
portunity, and resenting any attempt at injustice 
or wrong." If you substitute "the educated 
Negro" for labor, in reading the above quota- 
tion, you have just what we wish to impress 
upon your minds. This is a paramount fact. 
The educated colored people are beginning to 
quietly resent the indignity to which an ignor- 
ant white populace often subjects them. These 
whites envy the Negro an education, as they do 
those who by thrift have accumulated property. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS * 95 

SOUTHERN WHITE ILLITERACY.— 
In many parts of the South thirty-five per cent 
of the white natives are illiterates. Many of 
them are semi-barbarous, and live in the most 
degraded and poverty-stricken condition im- 
aginable. The educated and prosperous Negro 
looks down upon these helpless creatures, and 
believes that they are inferior to him, intel- 
lectually and socially, which is a sad fact. 

A story is told by a traveling man who 
crossed the country from one city to another 
with a team and driver. After traveling all day 
in a road torn by rains, and obstructed by high 
stumps and fallen trees, night overtook them — 
a real southern night in the woods. After los- 
ing their road and bearings they hopelessly 
wandered about until they spied a light. After 
much trouble they succeeded in reaching it, and 
found white natives living there. Could they 
stay over night? They most assuredly could. 

Supper was prepared for them in the fire- 
place, they never having used such a "new 
fangled thing" as an iron cookstove. The house 
contained two rooms, and in them a few pieces 
of homemade, rough furniture, including a bed. 
The travelers were tired and wondered where 
they could sleep, there being six children and 
the parents in the house. After supper they 
enjoyed a very interesting, if not intellectual, 



96 • HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



A STUDKNT IN BROWN. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 97 

conversation with the old folks. They noticed 
that one child after another climbed upon the 
bed and fell asleep, and was then placed in the 
corner of the room on the floor, until all six 
laid there in a row. Then the old folks retired 
to the next room and told their guests that they 
might now "go to bed." The travelers were 
tired and soon fast asleep. In the morning they 
awoke early, and to their utter astonishment 
they found themselves lying by the side of the 
children on the floor, while the old folks were 
snugly "tugged up" in the only bed in the house. 
The author has never had the experience of 
being transferred from a bed to the floor in his 
sleep, but the rest of the story is a literal fact. 

We take from the Woman's National Daily, 
St. Louis, Mo., the following timely editorial 
under the head of "A Story and a Moral." 

"A South Carolina contemporary, in advocat- 
ing compulsory education in that state and de- 
nying that it would mean Negro domination, 
goes out of his way to vouch for a little story told 
of a woman who has spent her life as a school 
teacher in that state. The school teacher says: 
'On my father's plantation were two families, 
one white and the other black, living as hired 
laborers. The head of neither family could read 
or write. Naturally, I tried to get the parents 
of the white family to send their children to 



58 HOLiM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

school. The Negro parents sent their children 
to school voluntarily. When cotton picking time 
came, the weighing and recording of weights, 
even of the white family, fell to one of the Negro 
boys who had been taught to read and write. 
Today that Negro boy, now a man, owns land 
and is a taxpayer. Every child of the white 
family is illiterate and not one owns land. I 
have tried to get at least one of these white chil- 
dren, now a mother, to send her children to 
school. She, like her parents, refuses to educate 
her children, saying that if she sent her girls 
to school the first fruit would be love letters to 
some man.' " 

The Southern American Weekly (white) says 
editorially: "There are many homes among the 
poor white people in the South today that con- 
tain inmates who are scantily provided with the 
bare necessities of life. The children are with- 
out nourishing food and without proper raiment. 
In parts of the year not a few of our white people 
in the rural districts live without meat. It is 
no unusual thing for them to be without flour 
bread. They are so poor because they are so 
ignorant, and they are ignorant because the 
South is in the hands of an oligarchy that has 
thought no more of the welfare of the white 
masses than they have thought of the black 
people. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 99 

Did not the oligarchy defeat the Blair bill 
for national aid to education? Did Alabama 
need national aid for education? Let the fact 
that out of 600,000 children of school age in 
this state there is an attendance of about 200,000 
in the public schools, with an average duration 
for the year of 102 days, let this fact make 
answer. 

It is a great political system to disfranchise 
people on account of ignorance that the dis- 
franchising authority is the more responsible for 
than is any one else. Heaven have mercy on the 
oligarchy." 

The fact is evident to our readers that the 
same forces in the South which endeavor to keep 
the Negro down and in ignorance, keeps the 
poor white masses down and in ignorance. The 
political machine is the master of the situation. 
The people are not consulted. In the same pa- 
per quoted above is the following: "There is 
no real popular government in the Southern 
states and no real democracy anywhere in the 
South. We all know this. The masses are now, 
and they have always been, a nonentity in the 
South. 

The oligarchy has run things in government 
and in every other relation of things down here. 
It IS and has always been, in effect, 'the people 
be damned!' And they are." 



100 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

These poor, degraded people do not even 
realize that they are in the direst kind of slavery, 
a slavery which chains the soul as well as the 
body. And the fact that they are white makes 
them more helpless, because of their belief in 
their superiority over the fast advancing Negro 
people. 

While thousands of black families yet live 
in one and two room cabins, there are many 
hundreds of white families living in precisely 
the same condition, and the illiteracy and pov- 
erty is the same in both homes. It is a pitiful 
sight to witness these white people in their pov- 
erty, especially if one takes into consideration 
the opportunities and advantages they have in 
the way of improving their condition, if they 
would. The author has witnessed the direst 
poverty in his work in the slums of Chicago, but 
he has never witnessed anything so hopeless as 
a species of poverty in a country that flows with 
milk and honey. 

DARKEST AFRICA IN AMERICA.— 
There is no need of a darkest Africa in Amer- 
ica, much less of a semi-barbarous white peo- 
ple. The North and South spent millions of 
money and thousands of precious lives in the war 
of the rebellion, because of the presence of the 
Negro. That sacrifice and devastation of both 
sections should forever be a warning and sufli- 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 101 

ciency against future entangling. Both sections 
should, long ere this, have made a more per- 
sistent and sweeping effort to educate the masses 
of both races in the South. 

Dr. John W. Abercrombie, president of the 
University of Alabama, a southern gentleman of 
broad, liberal and philanthropic views, deliv- 
ered a lecture at the Citronelle, Alabama Chau- 
tauqua, in 1909, on "Lawlessness — Its Cause and 
Cure." He emphasized the fact that the South 
must educate its white and colored children alike 
in the true principles of citizenship. He con- 
demned, in the strongest terms, the present lynch- 
ing evil. He said that many times a Negro is 
lynched for no other crime than that he was 
black. He said that the schoolhouse was the 
only avenue through which a better feeling be- 
tween the races might be brought about. He 
contended that the teachers in both the white 
and colored schools of the South should inspire 
in the children a true regard for each other. The 
wrong influence at home, he believed, was re- 
sponsible for a great deal of the race trouble 
and prejudice. He said the South was too poor 
at present to educate all its children. To tax 
the people for sufficient money to run the schools 
would be like confiscating their property. Under 
these conditions he believed the whites should be 
educated first, and educated right. If the whites 



102 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

received the right kind of education they would 
educate the Negro in turn. Since the South was 
ruined through the war, and left with millions 
of ignorant Negroes on their hands, he believed 
that the government ought to appropriate at 
least three and one-half million dollars per an- 
num for the education of the masses in the South. 

We quote this gentleman because he has looked 
deeply into this matter, and his judgment is 
worth a hundred Tillman's and Vardaman's on 
the race question. He does not need to tell his 
audience that he is the ^'best friend the nigger 
ever had," as ex-Governor Vardaman did a few 
days later on the same platform. His presence 
and manner of address is sufficient to convince 
his hearers that he has at heart the best interest 
of his brother in black. Would to God that the 
South had many more such men, brave enough 
and wise enough to tell the truth. 

Dr. Abercrombie does not deny the fact, as 
does Vardaman and others of his school, that the 
Negro can be educated. Why has the govern- 
ment forced the guardianship of these people 
upon the shoulders of their unwilling former 
masters without a provision or recompense? 
After the South was completely wrecked and im- 
poverished, the government left these unfor- 
tunate ex-slaves in the hands of their unfor- 
tunate ex-m.asters. These ex-masters, for the 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS lOS 

most part, did not believe in the education of 
the Negro, neither do their children today. For 
some unknown reason they fear an "educated 
nigger." Enforced guardianship, under these 
conditions, is nothing sweet to contemplate. 
There could be little love reciprocated between 
the ex-slave and ex-master, and it is a wonder, 
indeed, that any existed between them. And to 
look at the more practical side of this question-- 
what could the southern people do, when pov- 
ertv stalked in their midst in all its ghastly real- 
ity? Was it their business to build schoolhouses 
and hire teachers to educate the emancipated 
slave, whom they believed could not be educat- 
ed? That part rightfully belonged to the gov- 
ernment who freed them, and that government 
should be held responsible for all the semi-bar- 
barism and illiteracy of these people. It is true, 
some spasmodic attempts were made, as in the 
passage of the Freedman's Bureau bill, but the 
tremendous task of educating four and one-half 
million people in a poverty-stricken country de- 
manded a thorough system of warfare against ig- 
norance and superstition. If the government had 
established 5000 small industrial schools through- 
out the South, say, thirty-five years ago, and had 
conducted them under strict governmental super- 
vision (for whites and blacks alike) , there would 
be no darkest South today, and no undue preju- 



104 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

dice to contend with among those people, who 
have been educated apart, if educated at all, 
to hate each other in that bitterness born of illit- 
eracy and racial differences. Above all, both 
races should have been taught how to cultivate 
the soil profitably, how to build up their homes 
— in short, how to become prosperous. All the 
intensive farming, along scientific lines in the 
South today, is the result of northern energy 
and intelligence. If it were not for the energy 
and money of the northerner in the South at the 
present time, there would be fifty per cent more 
poverty and illiteracy. These schools we have 
mentioned would have brought the government 
and the southern people together, where, as now, 
they stand apart, and there is no love between 
the North and South; no united interest for the 
good of all, and the elevation and the education 
of the Negro as well as the poor whites. On 
the other hand, these schools would have brought 
prosperity and independence, because of the in- 
creased efficiency of labor, and this, in turn, 
would have brought about a better feeling be- 
tween the races. Nearly all the prejudice among 
the northern people who have settled In the 
South, against the Negro, is due to the fact, it is 
said, that he is shiftless and incompetent as a 
laborer, and this, as some believe, is not because 
he wants to be thus, but more often because he 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 105 

does not know how to labor for the interest of 
his employer. Among themselves they have 
created the impression that they must labor for 
the money there is in it, and not for the higher 
purpose of becoming experts in their calling. 
We have noticed very often that those who take 
an interest in their work, and do it well when 
laboring for a northern man, are not only re- 
spected and their race benefited, but thev may 
also soon demand better wages. The northern 
man has no use for shiftless labor, and will not 
tolerate it, in the kitchen, on the farm or in the 
shop, and the Negro is making a fearful mistake 
if he attempts to try it. The reason we believe 
the work Dr. Booker T. Washington and others 
are doing is a great one in the uplift of the race, 
is because educated labor and efficient service 
means respect, confidence, unity and equal priv- 
ileges when it has been fully established. It is 
the forerunner of future wealth and independ- 
ence. 

The thought must also occur to us here, that 
if the government had provided for the guard- 
ianship and education of the Negro, right after 
the war, and had then given him full political 
rights, and not before, the South would have 
found little reason to kick against the political 
and social rights of these people in a later day. 
No man, of whatever race or color, should be 



106 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

granted a full citizenship in the United States 
of America before he can read and write and is 
familiar with our form of government. Most 
of our political corruption is caused by the per- 
nicious influence wrought upon the illiterate by 
the professional politician and office seeker. 

INEQUALITY AND EDUCATION A 
TRANSPARENT DOCTRINE.— As long as 
a great mass of Negro population is illiterate 
there can be no political, industrial or social 
equality. While illiteracy among the whites 
may be overlooked, among the Negro people 
it will never be overlooked. Booker T. Wash- 
ington and his colleagues advocate industrial 
equality. That our readers may more fully 
understand what they mean by this we quote 
from a book, "The Colored American from 
Slavery to Honorable Citizenship," in which 
Prof. J. W. Gibson (white). Prof. Booker T. 
Washington, and Prof. W. H. Crogman (col- 
ored), appear as the authors: ''Does Not Crave 
Domination, But Equa/ify/' — (Page 190.) "The 
Negro craves not domination. He simply asks 
for equalization of rights and privileges, such 
as belong to American citizens under the funda- 
mental law of the land. As an American citizen 
he cannot ask less nor be contented with less." 

The educated class, which embraces the mu- 
latto and all others of African descent, will never 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD-S SPOTS 107 

be satisfied with anything less than equal oppor- 
tunity with every other citizen of the white race. 
And why should it be? As we so often repeat 
in this book, the bluest blood that ever landed in 
this country, of both the black and white races, 
Hows in their veins. And as the lower element 
becomes more educated and mixed with this 
higher class, it will make the same claim, and 
demand the same rights. 

If we look but a few centuries back into Euro- 
pean history, we find that the great mass of 
people came through the same identical process 
of evolution there. The only difference is that 
the dominant white politician in the South is 
the feudal lord and the poor white and colored 
citizen the serf. The author's great grandfather 
witnessed, in his day, the tying to the stake of 
the serf and the whipping of him by the lord, in 
that country of giant intellects — Germany. To- 
day — what a marvelous change! The children 
of the colored people have a better opportunity 
to obtain an education in the states today than 
had the poor children of Germany and other 
European countries a generation or Uvo ago. 

There is little sense in the cry that the Negro 
u^ants social equality. There is no such a thing 
in existence in America as social equality among 
the whites, why, then, should it be feared be- 
tween the two races? There are lines drawn be- 



108 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

tween the laboring man and professional man, 
the professional and moneyed man, the rich and 
poor, the high and low, the aristocrat and la- 
borer. The various classes are pitted against 
each other and do not live for the welfare and 
happiness of each other. The American people 
are too self-centered and voracious at the pres- 
ent time to allow any altruistic sentiments to 
unite the various classes. Society is just as much 
shocked when it finds the daughter of an aristo- 
crat in the company of a young laboring man, 
as it is when it finds the daughter of a laborer 
in the society of a decent colored man. The 
verdict invariably is that these girls have 
"thrown themselves away." Whereas, if they 
marry a worthless bummer of their own class 
it is taken as a matter of course. 

Dr. Booker T. Washington and other prom- 
inent men and women of the Negro race have 
been entertained by white men and women who 
would not think of entertaining a farmer, a cross- 
road storekeeper or a white servant girl. When 
it comes to worth, ability, education, the color 
line must necessarily vanish among people of 
culture and true ethics. And in the business 
world the selfishness of the American people — 
the love of money — will in time obliterate the 
color line. A prominent Negro, Mr. J. H. Lewis, 
has well said that the business world knows noth- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 109 

ing of color, that human selfishness, the desire 
of every man to get money, would eventually 
banish prejudice. That the almighty dollar is 
thoroughly color blind. That money commands 
respect. "Rare," says he, "is the merchant or 
manufacturer who will refuse to shake hands 
with a hundred thousand dollars." 

While it is a lamentable fact that money is 
the supreme god of the American people, and 
that it will cover a multitude of sins, yet talents, 
education, worth, will not long go begging 
among a great people. True talent and persist- 
ence of efifort has always been recognized, sooner 
or later; and the American people are, after all, 
too great not to let justice triumph over wrong 
in a final decision. When a president of these 
United States can dine with a prominent mem- 
ber of the Negro race, it is not likely that a com- 
mon citizen will in time find it a disgrace to 
associate, on common ground, with the respect- 
able class of colored people. 

When education and love enters, the vile devil 
of inequality and prejudice must flee. Only 
among the narrow and selfish can he find an 
abiding place. We mean the right kind of edu- 
cation, of the heart, the head, the soul. Of wrong 
education we have a plenty. It has already 
caused the foul spirit of anarchy to infest the 
hearts and arouse the lower faculties of the mind 



110 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

to dark plots and evil deeds. We want the spirit 
of Universal Brotherhood inculcated in the 
minds and hearts of the American people. We 
w^ant it taught to every child — preached to every 
man and woman in the land. We feel that this 
"land of the free and home of the brave" will 
be torn asunder, limb by limb; will lay prostrate 
in the dust, bleeding, dying, in the most terrible 
slaughter on man's record, unless prejudice is 
obliterated between the races in our midst. A 
trained mind cannot submit to social inferiority. 

WHAT JAPANESE THINK OF IT.— 
The following is what Kaju Nakamura, editor 
of the Japanese-American Commercial Weekly, 
said of the Japanese situation: 

"Of the several reasons assigned by the people 
of California for their hostility to the Japanese, 
the only one that is real is race prejudice, which, 
strange to say, I have found stronger in this 
country — this land of the free — than in any other 
country in the world. It is, I believe, this race 
prejudice, this most horrible of all diseases of 
the human mind, that is responsible for these at- 
tacks upon the Japanese. God, or whatever you 
may believe to be supreme, made us, and He 
never drew lines between each race, one race to 
be superior over the others ; nor did He teach one 
race to despise others, but He colored each so 
as to best suit the climate of his abode. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 111 

Negroes, Chinese, Japanese, feel hunger, 
pain, gladness or shame just as much as Cau- 
casians feel them. One has blood that runs as 
warm as the other. They love their friends, 
hate their enemies, and they cry when sad, just 
as other people do. We Japanese are human, you 
Americans are human. Opportunity may have 
done more for one than for the other, but at the 
root of things we are all alike. Could that one 
thought be impressed on those who are most 
loudly crying out against the Japanese today, I 
believe that the Japanese question, if there be 
one, would disappear like fog before the sun." 

It is an open question before the thinking 
white citizens of these States: Shall America 
go down in history as the race hating nation of 
the world, persecuting and trampling upon every 
race, regardless of their ability or worth, if their 
skin be colored? 



112 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 



CHAPTER V 

THE COLOR LINE 

DO NOT CHAMPION THE NEGRO 
AT THE EXPENSE OF SOUTHERN 
WHITES. — We revolt against the task of en- 
larging upon the color line subject, and would 
gladly refrain from discussing it in these pages 
if we could attain the object in view in any other 
way. But it is apparent that our work would 
be in vain did we not expound, in unmistakable 
language, the existing relations between the 
white and colored people. In discussing these 
existing conditions, we do not wish to convey the 
idea that we are blind to and do not respect the 
position of the Southern people in this regard. 
Furthermore, we do not wish to impress the 
reader with the idea that we are championing 
the cause of the American Negro at the expense 
of the Southern whites. We wish to say that we 
really champion nobody. Our only aim is, as 
we say in our introduction, to lay bare this social 
cancer, that we may treat it with scientific cer- 
tainty. We love the country of our adoption and 
the people thereof. A true Southerner is an un- 
prejudiced, warm-hearted, kindly gentleman, 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 11.5 

and to know him thoroughly is to love him. We 
have no fear that he will take unkindly to what 
we say, though he may not see just at present how 
the reforms advocated in this book can be suc- 
cessfullv applied. 

HARD THINGS HURLED AT 
NEGROES' FRIENDS.— We also wish to re- 
mind our Southern brother that from time to 
time very, very hard things are hurled at some 
Northern and other friends of the Negro, who 
unfortunately step across the color line they do 
not discern with that inbred acuteness of the 
Southern gentleman. This the beloved and la- 
mented Bishop Potter did at Richmond before 
his death. The luncheon he took with a fellow 
colored bishop at that time was repeatedly 
vomited up by the Southern press. It is our ob- 
ject to throw before you, as a fit illustration, a 
bit of this vomit at this time, as Bishop Potter 
was a prominent Christian character, and his 
position was a notable one. And in referring to 
this and like instances, it matters little whether 
they took place yesterday or ten years ago; the 
same class of men hold precisely the same view 
in regard to the Negro of today, they or their fa- 
thers held forty years and more ago. This is evi- 
dence that there has been no change of sentiment 
or change of heart in the children of former 
slave-holders. 

8 



114 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

A HIGHLY -CENSURABLE ACT. — 

(From Lynchburg News.) "Bishop and Mrs. 
Potter, of New York, who are occupying the 
residence at 600 West Franklin street, Rich- 
mond, during the general convention of the 
American Episcopal Church, this evening enter- 
tained at luncheon Bishop Ferguson, of Africa, 
the only Negro entitled to a seat in the house of 
bishops. This from our Richmond advices yes- 
terday. Thus has Bishop Potter flaunted odious 
insult to the Southern people before the world's 
vision. He has done this quite deliberately, 
quite flagrantly and with a degree of callous in- 
solence that absolutely startles and bewilders. 
This New York Bishop is no mental incompe- 
tent. He is no ill-informed man. He is in no posi- 
tion to claim ignorance of social conditions in the 
South. He knows, and knew very well, the way 
by and through which he could oflfend the people 
of this section, wound their sensibilities, arouse 
their indignant protest. He knew no surer 
means was at hand to accomplish this end than 
by preaching social equality between the races, 
or worse still, by overt act show that he embraces 
the hated doctrine. And yet knowing all this, 
he has consciously resorted to a procedure that 
was unnecessary; that was brought about by the 
bishop's own deliberate volition, and for which 
appears no sort of reasonable excuse or explana- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 115 

tion. This Bishop Potter did while in the South, 
while the guest of a Southern city and in a resi- 
dence of that city, temporarily leased by him — 
temporarily leased from a Richmond citizen, 
who would doubtless regard the act of a lessee in 
entertaining a Negro at his dining board, as 
much an act of social vandalism as he would es- 
teem it an act of physical vandalism had Bishop 
Potter smashed the doors of his residence and 
shattered its windows. This he did, knowing that 
as a result human bitterness would be engen- 
dered, seeds of trouble and contention sown 
which, in due season, might produce results cal- 
culated to rend in twain the great Episcopal 
Church of America. * * * When Bishop Potter 
in Richmond gave an ofifensive object lesson of 
his belief in social equality between the races, he 
has become a breeder of resentment between 
men; a feeder to race estrangement, an agitator 
of angry passions. Is Bishop Potter consistent 
in his belief upon this social equality question, 
we wonder? Is he sincere? If so, he ought not 
to oppose its application, even though it should 
knock at the door of his own home in New York 
and thrust its presence and philosophy among 
the members of his own family. Would he say 
it nay should it thus come to him and his — this 
doctrine which he practiced in Richmond on 
Friday? We wonder; aye, we wonder, indeed. 



116 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

The writer of this editorial was reared in the 
Episcopal Church, and for more than twenty 
years has been identified with its membership. 
This being the case, he has viewed with no lit- 
tle anxiety the discussion and actions of the pres- 
ent convention in regard to the race question. 
Present signs, we submit, point to breakers 
ahead for American episcopacy. The church 
must recognize the South's demands upon the 
race question, and engraft acceptation thereof 
upon its polity, or invite endless trouble. The 
separation of the races in church matters, and 
separate conventions for the white and Negroes 
— these things in the end will prove the only 
efficacious solution of the existing problem. 
Bishop Potter has aided in hastening the crisis, 
when clear, definite, decisive action will be re- 
quired. If he and men with his views are to 
prevail upon the issue joined, then a Northern 
episcopacy and a Southern episcopacy will 
evolve from a now united church. No compro- 
mise upon the question can live. Either the 
South's view must be maintained or division 
must ensue. Between these alternatives the 
church will, before many years, be compelled 
to choose, unfortunate and unhappy as be the 
consequences." 

WOULD DENOUNCE JESUS. — The 
writer of the above editorial says that he has 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 117 

been a member of the Episcopal church for 
twenty years. We respect him for his honesty, 
for he does not pretend to say that he has been 
a Christian for that length of time. An intelli- 
gent Christian could not and would not disgrace 
himself and the South in the use of such 
scathing language toward the bishop of his 
church for the performance of a noble Christian 
duty. If Jesus of Nazareth would appear and 
sit down to sup with a colored bishop of His 
church, the same class of men in the South who 
denounce such men as Bishop Potter was, would 
denounce Him. And where can we find a true 
Christian who does not feel in his heart that 
Jesus Christ, the reputed Son of God, confessed 
no recognition of a color line? Who dares say 
that he did, in this late day? By His Father in 
heaven all men were created free and equal, 
man's depravity alone has wrought inequality. 
The earth out of w^hich the wTiter of the above 
editorial and his like are formed, was taken from 
the same heap out of which the humblest Negro 
in the South was made, and both will return to 
it when they die. Where is your color line there? 
And should the writer of the above article re- 
pent and be saved, and he and the humble Negro 
die together, they would together knock at the 
door of heaven, and St. Peter would open and 
let them both in. Where is your color line there? 



118 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

This is the humble but fundamental doctrine 
of the true Christian faith, is it not? To bring 
out this fact to our readers, we have chosen this 
appropriate incident relative to Bishop Potter. 
This and many other similar incidents show the 
reader that many southern whites, who, for the 
most partclaim to be an intensely religious people, 
have even drawn a sharp color line in religion. 
A smart colored woman told the author that she 
asked a southern white lady whether the colored 
folks would be like the white people in heaven. 
*'No," she answered, "they will be servants of 
the white people there the same as they are here." 
The author, too, has heard this same statement 
more than once from the lips of very pious 
southerners. So, while it is now admitted that 
the Negro may have a soul, he is eternally 
doomed to serve the southern white people in 
heaven. We think it very kind of the southern 
Christian theologian to give his black brother 
and sister, and his colored offspring, a chance 
to at least enter heaven as a servant. It is better 
to get there as a servant than not to get there 
at all. 

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.— 
"But," they say, "you don't understand. The 'nig- 
ger' rnust be kept down." Let us see. Here we 
have it: "I favor unqualifiedly and without re- 
serve the abrogation of the Fifteenth Amend- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARDS SPOTS 119 

ment of the Constitution, and it is my hope 
through the United States Senate, to demonstrate 
to the nation that there is only one practical way 
of settling this matter, and that is by plainly 
showing the Negro his proper place in our sys- 
tem of government. The race question must be 
settled, and that soon. It cannot be disposed 
of, however, until the nation as a whole has 
been convinced that there is a distinction be- 
tween the white and the black. 

GAP JUST AS WIDE BETWEEN 
NEGRO AND WHITE.— "The laws now 
specifically recognize the difference between the 
white man and the Indian, the Chinaman, Es- 
quimo or the Malay. There is just as wide a gap 
between the white man and the Negro.* 

The Negroes of the South are becoming more 
criminal every day. Notwithstanding the mil- 
lions of dollars we have spent in attempting to 
educate them, they are becoming more disre- 
spectful of law and more animal like in their 
characters and desires. * * * The abrogation of 
the Fifteenth Amendment w^ill place the Negro 
where he belongs. * * * If 1 get to the Senate 
there will be an opportunity to speak to the en- 
tire nation. The North will know what the 
South already knows, that the climax is at hand. 
It will come to appreciate that Thomas Jefifer- 

*See Chapter XIV. "Where Indians and whites marry." 



120 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

son was not speaking of the Negro when he 
said that all men were created free and equal. 
He knew that the Negro was a mere chattel. 
* * * The crisis is nearly due. The matter of 
white supremacy or black domination in the 
South is at fever heat, and the sooner the North 
and West realize it the better it will be for the 
nation." — Ex-Governor Vardaman of Missis- 
sippi. 

The southern whites fear "black domination," 
but it is really the domination of their colored 
progeny, backed by the black, that they fear. 
Let readers remember this fact. 

INDIANS AND NEGROES VOTE.— We 
think we now understand. ( ?) But the argument 
that the laws now specifically recognize the dif- 
ference between the Indian and the white man, 
is, we fear, at least a weak one, so far as Okla- 
homa is concerned, which has become a state 
since the above was first spoken. Oklahoma has 
a full suflfrage clause in its constitution, covering 
every man, white, red, yellow and black. The con- 
stitution was adopted by a majority of 109,000. 
The vote against it was 75,000. The Indian 
population of the state is the largest in the Union, 
being 75,000, of these about 15,000 are voters. 

TILLMAN DOES NOT WANT THE 
NEGRO'S HEEL ON HIS NECK.— (From 
a 'Speech in the senate) 'T am not opposed to 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 121 

Negro education at all, provided it is of the 
right kind, knowing that education increases in- 
telligence and intelligence increases the useful- 
ness of the citizens. What I said and meant and 
by which I stick is this: That the Republican 
poli-cy of the last forty years has been to compel 
the South to recognize the political equality of 
the Negro. That in its essence would mean the 
domination of the Negro in South Carolina and 
Mississippi and many parts of other southern 
states. We have disfranchised every Negro we 
could under the Fifteenth Amendment, and the 
only instrumentality available was to require an 
educational qualification. There is now an agi- 
tation in South Carolina for compulsory educa- 
tion. That would mean a heavy burden to pro- 
vide more schools which the white tax payers 
would have to bear, and there could be no dis- 
crimination against the Negro on account of 
race or color. (He does not believe that labor 
produces w^ealth and pays taxes). Hence we 
would present the spectacle of educating the 
Negro at a very heavy expense to hurry forward 
the contest for supremacy between the two races, 
as soon as we should have given them the neces- 
sary qualifications to vote, and be undoing what 
we found absolutely necessary to preserve our 
civilization. We never intend to be governed 
by Negroes, whether educated or uneducated. 



122 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




ANTI-NEGRO PHILOSOPHER. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 123 

The Republican party is now seeking to debauch 
the South through Mr. Taft, who offers us two 
offices in every thousand of our population and 
a pretended advancement of our material inter- 
ests to join that party. If the Republicans will 
throw down and abandon, once for all, their ef- 
forts to compel the South to recognize the joint 
equality of the Caucasian and African by re- 
pealing the Fifteenth Amendment, we can then 
have the control of our state affairs, and can then 
train them to make better citizens and aid in that 
'uplift' which Mr. Taft is so anxious to see 
brought about. But we never expect to 'lift' 
them high enough ourselves, and allow anybody 
else to lift them high enough to put their heels 
on our necks or govern us again, and the conflict 
of the races, which seems to me inevitable, will 
only be hastened by such talk as Mr. Taft in- 
dulges in." 

COLOR LINE IN POLITICS.— An edi- 
torial appeared in the Mobile Register, referring 
to the famous Dr. Crum case, that caused so 
much debate in the United States senate. Here 
is fully expressed the South's idea of color in 
politics. It matters little how competent and 
faithful a man may be in the performance of 
his duty, if he has a trace of Negro blood in his 
veins he cannot "properly represent the govern- 
ment." The editorial is as follows: "The rule 
in the appointment of men to federal office 



124 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

should be: to appoint that person only who by 
common report is of such standing that the peo- 
ple might, if they were called on, elect such per- 
son to the designated office. Where it is well 
known that by no possible combination of cir- 
cumstances such persons would be chosen by 
the community the appointment should not be 
made or even thought of. Under this rule, no 
colored man would be placed in an important 
public office in the South, such as the collector- 
ship of a port, as was done in Charleston. The 
collector is not simply a clerk of the government, 
to receive and be responsible for revenues of the 
port; he is also a representative of the govern- 
ment, and, by virtue of his office, ought to as- 
sume and be accorded a high position, officially, 
commercially and socially. Whatever are the 
qualities of Dr. Crum, the collector of Charles- 
ton, or his ability to care for the collection and 
delivery of the revenues, and even to look after 
the commercial interests of the port, it must be 
admitted that, by reason of his color, he cannot 
associate on equal terms with the business men 
of the community, and is wholly cut oflf from the 
exercise of all social functions whatever. He 
does not, therefore, properly represent the gov- 
ernment, and the government is without a repre- 
sentative in Charleston, except in the limited 
sense that it has there a curator of its revenues. 
The protest of the Charleston people has been 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 125 

Steadfastly presented to the attention of the presi- 
dent (Mr. Roosevelt), but to him it appears to 
be the product of racial prejudice, and, accord- 
ingly, not worthy of being heeded. If the presi- 
dent could entertain the hope that, by persistence 
in keeping Dr. Crum in the position of collector, 
he could overcome the opposition and obtain 
for Dr. Crum the recognition every collector 
should have, there might be some sense in per- 
sistence; but the president has no such hope. 
The jjientnl habit of the ichite community is not 
goiny to change, even though a thousand Crums 
are appointed to office. The senate has the power 
of rejecting the re-appointment of Dr. Crum, 
and, it is reported, will reject it. In so doing it 
will be of good service, for the appointee does 
not possess all the qualifications for the office, 
and ought not to hold the office." 

THEY RUB IN THE COLOR LINE.— 
We are conscious of the fact that there are men 
throughout the South today who take advantage 
of every opportunity to rub in the color line sub- 
ject. Such men as Senator Tillman, for instance, 
have made it a paying business to lecture on the 
race question; or, to be more explicit, "rave on 
it." This class, as we intimate elsewhere, that 
does not even spare a bishop in the exercise of 
his private rights, does not represent the true 
sentiment of any country or any people. They 
are the remnant of a defunct aristocracy, or their 



126 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

on-hangers, and die hard. They are a set of 
blatant, blasphemous anarchists who inflame the 
hearts of an ignorant, self-conceited southern 
populace to mob violence and hellish crimes 
against a poor, defenseless people, who have been 
kicked and cuffed and tongue-lashed by these 
crack-brained enemies of our free institutions 
and Republican form of government, without 
a blush of shame. They never will submit to 
the changing conditions, or see anything better 
in the Negro than a chattel. We sincerely sym- 
pathize with them. They have undergone tre- 
mendous, unrestorable losses through the eman- 
cipation of the slave, and a lifetime will scarcely 
eradicate the bitterness thereof among these poor 
children of men. 

THE NEGRO'S PLACE.— The most de- 
plorable thing about it is that they persist in 
treating the race question in such an unscientific 
manner, that it is merely a species of fault-find- 
ing. The desire to "plainly show the Negro his 
proper place in our system of government," is no 
treatment of the question under discussion. The 
Negro, as a whole, has no proper place where 
all may be justly located in our system of gov- 
ernment. While some of them are not yet fully 
competent to exercise the rights of full citizen- 
ship, as is so often contended, the majority are 
as competent as any foreigners that ever landed 
on our shores; and some are as competent as a 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 127 

Vardaman to fill a senatorial chair in our na- 
tional capitol. And of this fact true Americans 
need not be ashamed, but intensely proud, as it 
shows the world that the mixed American peo- 
ple are the most progressive, intellectual and in- 
vincible people on the earth; and that the whole 
world will be drawn into the united American 
races before the trumpet of Gabriel sounds. We 
here refer to the union of all races; and we shall 
show the reader in this book that such a union 
is inevitable. 

THEIR MINDS ARE WARPED.— Vol- 
taire once said that he had been so busy in grind- 
ing out natural laws, for so many years, that his 
mind had lost its power to reason correctly upon 
moral subjects, and this same fact is applicable 
to these southerners, who are born and raised to 
"keep the nigger in his place." Their minds are 
deficient in those mental elements which create 
the moral feelings that recognize and sense the 
highest Christian and humane law of Universal 
Brotherhood, as taught by Jesus and other great 
leaders of religious and moral thought of ancient 
and modern times. They are the dare-devil- 
spirits who work for effect, and their own selfish 
ends, regardless of consequences or moral de- 
cency. They belie and damn the entire colored 
race just because they can. Like a wicked boy, 
spoiled in the raising, they set a big dog upon a 
small, defenseless one. They indulge in this 



128 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

immoral sport with a wicked eye and the craving 
of an abnormal nature. The degeneracy and 
sensuality of the old slave master is, as the Scrip- 
tures say, visited upon the descendants of that 
master. All sensible men and women of both 
races should pity these poor, deluded mortals. 
To hate them would be a crime, because they 
are irresponsible. 

ANOTHER ANTI-NEGRO PHILOSO- 
PHER.— Thomas H. Norwood of Georgia, a 
former United States Senator and a city judge, 
w^hen retiring from the bench which he had oc- 
cupied twelve years, delivered an address on 
the race question. The judge said that after in- 
vestigation and long contact with the Negro as a 
defendant in his court, he had reached the con- 
clusion that the Negro is incapable of receiving 
and using more than the rudiments of an edu- 
cation. The Negro as a slave was cared for by 
the white man, he said, but the present genera- 
tion is retrograding to the status of the savage 
and rule by force. This is shown by the constant 
disregard of laws, repeated resistance of arrest 
and shooting down of white men who attempt to 
control them. The mulatto is the curse of both 
the white man and the Negro race in the South, 
said Judge Norwood. They stir the others to 
deeds of violence and create discord. Illicit 
miscegenation he held, should be repressed by 
the most vigorous laws. It should be made a 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 129 

capital offense, the guilty man hanged and the 
woman sent to the penitentiary for life. 

This man claims he has studied or investigated 
the Negro for a long time — in his court as a de- 
fendant. Has he ever made careful investiga- 
tions out of his court as a friend? Is it possible 
to investigate and study ten millions of people 
by the few hundred miserable examples that are 
brought before the bench of a city judge? A 
man must have the wisdom exceeding that of 
Solomon, to thus draw conclusions of any value 
whatever. And as regards resisting arrest, to 
which Judge Norwood referred as evidence of 
retrogression; the facts are as follows: When a 
Negro is arrested in the South for any crime 
from chicken stealing to murder, there is im- 
minent danger of lynching without trial or a 
fair chance of defense, and rather than submit 
to such a painful and ignominious end, he fights 
when cornered and dies like a man. Let the 
officers of the law guarantee safety and a fair 
trial to their colored prisoners, and there would 
soon be a decrease in resisting arrest. 

A BROAD, UNBIASED INVESTIGA- 
TION. — What do we think, who have also in- 
vestigated the Negro and race question, not from 
the standpoint of inbred prejudice or in a city 
court, but in the homes of the poor, the humble, 
the cultured, the professional, in school, among 
children, in church, in society, everywhere, — as 



130 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 






''he u 



0.^ 



ev^> 












U 



♦Hf'C'N 




HE VOMITS POLITICAL RACE DOPE. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 131 

an unbiased, careful student of human nature. 
What do these wide-mouthed philosophers know 
about the Negro anyhow? Have they the con- 
fidence, respect and heart-secrets of the intelli- 
gent colored folk? Have they entered their lives, 
thought their thoughts and experienced their 
hopes and fears, their joys and tears, and felt 
the burning, choking sensations of humiliation, 
to which they are so often subjected without re- 
dress or a word of complaint? 

Do these agitators realize that they will be 
regarded the fools of this age a hundred years 
hence — that they are treading a mill that will 
grind long after their mortal bodies have been 
given over to the worms and have returned to 
dust; and that it will grind so fine that their im- 
mortal self (if they have not lost their identity) 
will be in danger of hell-burning remorse? The 
paramount question will soon confront America 
— What shall we do with the white color line 
maniac of the country? 

GOD'S FINGER OF APPROVAL IS UP- 
ON THE MULATTO.— If this man from 
Georgia and others like him mean that the aver- 
age West African Negro in his native jungle is 
not capable of receiving more than the rudi- 
ments of an education, they may be partially 
right; but when they say this of the American 
Negro, they are wrong. And when they say that 
the present generation is retrograding to savage- 



132 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ry, they are decidedly wrong. When they say 
the mulatto is the curse of both the white man 
and the Negro race in the South, they say right. 
The mulatto is the greatest curse (?) that God 
Almighty has ever raised for the purpose of 
lifting up a whole race of people, and to lay 
bare the hidden foulness of the prevailing wrong 
social condition in this country. These state- 
ments may sound radical, and out of place in 
a work given to science, reason and justice 
rather than religious sentiment; but we shall 
give you plenty of sound, scientific evidence 
to back up every statement made, before 
you close this book; and if we can impart 
to you a glimpse of Divine Providence in 
the marvelous evolutionary process that dom- 
inates the American Negro, as we proceed, we 
believe you will be better prepared to draw your 
final conclusions when all has been said and 
done. We say that God has placed his finger 
of approval upon the colored Caucasian, and 
that this race is destined to become one of the 
intellectual and industrial giants of America 
and the civilized world. This is why the mulatto 
is considered such a curse to the South today, 
is it not? 

Ninety per cent of all the great people in 
the world's history, of whom we have any record, 
have been of a mixed origin ; perhaps this is why 
the mulatto is a curse. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



133 




A beautiful conception of the Rev. Dr. Dixon, 
author of "The Leopard's Spots.'' 



134 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



CHAPTER VI 

NORTHERN PREJUDICE 

A SCATTERED FEW HOLD COLOR 
LINE IN CONTEMPT.— We have said con- 
siderable about the so-called "smart nigger," as 
the enlightened colored gentleman is designated. 
We shall have occasion to mention him again. 
But before we speak of him further in this chap- 
ter we shall take up northern prejudice in order 
to convey more clearly the chain of thought be- 
gun in the preceding discussion. There is an 
old proverb, "Never trouble trouble till trouble 
troubles you." The southerners have long had 
a serious trouble, and this same trouble is now 
confronting the northern Yankee in the South. 
We honor every northern sympathizer with our 
work, who believes in and champions the cause 
of the poor, down-trodden, despised colored 
race. We have in mind, while we write these 
lines, several persons of ability and influence 
who would willingly give their best thought and 
energy to untangle, adjust and alleviate the dif- 
ficulties of the colored people, if they had in 
their possession the key that unlocks the door 
to the "Hall of Reason," so that the light thereof 
might illuminate the black caverns of mental 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 135 

obscurity in the white man's boasted canopy of 
human justice, and knock the prancing steed 
from under the proud parader of heaven-born 
supremacy. Unless there is a decided change 
in the attitude toward the colored race, of many 
northern people in the North and of many who 
settle in the South, we have not the slightest hope 
that a better sentiment will be created, beneficial 
to the race, intellectually, socially, industrially 
or morally, as far as they are concerned. We do 
not mean to say, though, that the Negro is desti- 
tute of the friendship or sympathy of northern 
people who have settled in the South. But it is 
only among the scattered few who take a broader 
interest in and a more substantial view of life 
and the human race; and who have cast aside 
the narrow, self-centered religious and material 
interests, and look forward to a better condition 
for all mankind, who welcome and love the good 
colored people. By many of these the color 
line is held in profound contempt; and for rea- 
sons founded on their religious faith and a true 
understanding of the law of human progress and 
justice. In the North, where the bad Negro 
element is not conspicuous to warp the faith in 
the race, this class is vastly in the majority. We 
are sorry to say, though, that one bad Negro 
sometimes may turn one-half of a northern com- 
munity' against the 'race. The big riot at Spring- 



136 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

field, III., some time ago, is a fair example. 
There is a class of Negro haters in the North, 
composed of the scum of society, that is ever 
ready to hang and burn ; but if the Negro were 
displaced by the Jap or Chinaman, the result 
would be the same. This unstable element is, 
in some parts of the North, as plentiful, or in 
proportion as numerous, as the Negro in the 
South. But don't let our readers be deceived 
by any false statements ; the millions of substan- 
tial northern people are the best friends the Afro- 
American race has on this side of the Atlantic 
ocean. Any colored man or woman first travel- 
ing in the North, will at once feel the spirit of 
libertv that pervades everything. 

THE COLOR line" FEVER.— That the 
blind, silly pretentions of the common populace, 
with regard to the color line, should be repu- 
diated by substantial citizens is no wonder; for 
it is sickening, indeed, to hear the opinions of 
many of these base pretenders when they speak 
of the "nigger," and especially when one knows 
that these very ones are of less credit to the moral 
tone of a community, than even the least respect- 
able Negroes in it. Scientific investigation has 
convinced us that the insane prejudice of this 
class is but a symptom of a deep-seated moral 
disease, with which they are afflicted; for among 
the morally sound whites, North and South, we 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 137 

have scarcely ever heard a single word said 
against the colored race as a whole or the color 
line, but have always found more sympathy than 
complaint, often with the addition of a hope ex- 
pressed that a better day might dawn for the 
race. 

We have knowledge of many instances where 
northern whites, of most respectable Christian 
character, invited their colored help to eat with 
them at the family table after settling in the 
South. The color line hubbub of today is not 
simply a harmless fad, indulged in by such as 
have no higher employment for their shallow 
minds, but it is a serious, deep-seated affair, that 
does not only belittle and snub the best colored 
man, but works permanent injury to the highest 
interests of both races. The growing sentiment 
among the present generation of whites, that 
the Negro is not wanted, is the outgrowth of this 
color line cry, and consequently the strained con- 
dition between the races becomes more acute. 
We give just one instance here to show you how 
it works among northern people in the far 
South, who have contracted the color line fever. 
We quote from a local newspaper: 

"Fairhope is doing what Citronelle did several 
years ago — turning down Negro excursions. The 
Bay Steamship Company has an excursion billed 
to land at Fairhope next Monday. Fairhope 



138 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

owns their own wharf, and say that they shall not 
land." Fairhope like Citronelle is essentially a 
northern town. It was built and is inhabited 
by a single tax colony. A people who should 
be broadminded enough to welcome any folk 
who desire to spend a day of recreation and en- 
joyment in their vicinity. These Mobile excur- 
sions are made up of a promiscuous crowd. 
Sometimes a little shooting fracas happens 
among them, and one of their number may be 
killed, as was the case in Citronelle a few years 
ago, but in the main it is a good-natured crowd, 
out for a good time. Now, the idea we wish to 
convey here, without undue reflection on these 
towns or people, is this : A certain class of north- 
ern people in the South do not wish to be incon- 
venienced or bothered with the "nigger." In 
other words, they have no use for colored folks, 
they do not want them around if they can get 
along without them. They have not gained their 
confidence, and know absolutely nothing about 
these peculiar, interesting children of men. This 
seems to be the prevailing sentiment wherever 
a northern community is found, if not openly 
expressed, as in the towns above named, it is 
nevertheless quietly assumed. Now, the reason 
is not so much on account of color, with many 
of these northern friends, as on account of the 
fact that the Negro today is not what the average 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



139 



American white man and woman believes he 
ought to be, as we have said in a preceding chap- 
ter. This color line cry has undoubtedly become 
acute on account of the forces in existence, which 
move the masses of the colored race upwards, 
round by round, into the higher intellectual and 
social scales of civilization. In some instances 
the colored man has the highest and holiest fra- 
ternal feelings in his heart, when he expresses 
a desire to at least under some circumstances, ob- 
literate the color line. Such a desire was expressed 
by a camp of colored Spanish war veterans. We 
give it as editorially commented upon by an old 
prominent southern paper. And in connection 
with the following editorial comes to our mind 
a statement Booker T. Washington made in his 
speech in the Auditorium, during the Jubilee 
week in Chicago, after the Spanish-American 
war. He said: 

"We can celebrate the era of peace in no more 
effectual way than by a firm resolve on the part 
of northern men and southern men, black men 
and white men, that the trenches that we together 
dug around Santiago shall be the eternal burial 
place of all that which separates us in our busi- 
ness and civil relations. Let us be generous in 
peace as we have been in battle. Until we thus 
conquer ourselves, I make no empty statement 
when I say, that we shall have a cancer gnawing 



140 HOLM'S RACE ASSnilLATIOX 

at the heart of the republic that shall one day 
prove as dangerous as an attack from an army 
without or within." 

After all these years have passed the following 
incident shows that Booker T. Washington's 
words have fallen upon barren soil. 

THE COLOR LINE AMONG SPANISH 
WAR VETERANS.— ''Recently a camp of 
Spanish war veterans in Washington, composed 
entirely of Negroes, proposed consolidation with 
a white camp. The proposition was repelled 
with energy. Not content with that attempt to 
obliterate the color line, Past Commander Wor- 
rell Ball renewed the effort the other night at 
a reception to National Commander-in-Chief 
Walter Scott Hale, at Grand Army Hall, where 
both white and Negro veterans had gathered, by 
declaring that "the color line does not exist in 
the Spanish War Veterans." His declaration 
was not only hissed, but many whites left the 
hall. The color line is definitely drawn every- 
where. Its eradication is impossible. All effort 
in that direction is not only futile, but operates 
as a positive injury to the Negro, as it tends to 
arouse race antagonism." 

This editor says that the color line is definitely 
drawn everywhere, and that the eradication of it 
is impossible, and wherever attempted it "oper- 
ates as a positive injury to the Negro." 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 141 

First, why? Because it "tends to arouse race 
antagonism." 

Secondly, how? By giving him the shadow 
of a hope of social equality. 

Thirdly, because his skin is dark or black, his 
hair kinky, and he has once been a slave, and 
by the law of "might makes right," must be 
eternally doomed to the realms of an inferior 
being. 

Fourthly, to sum up the whole matter, the com- 
mon phrase of the South is appliable — "The 
nigger must be kept down." 

The editor does not say all this in the above 
comment, but he who runs may read between 
the lines all that is meant to be conveyed in 
every reference to this subject. 

THE COLORED GENTLEMAN.— Once 
upon a time he may have crawled up to his 
master, and kissed the dust from his feet in hum- 
ble submission, but conditions have changed. 
The "smart nigger," the enlightened colored 
gentleman of today is a dififerent psychological 
product. While he may have inherited some of 
the worst elements in two races, he also decid- 
edly inherited the noble qualities which form 
the foundation upon which a noble race may 
well be founded. 

We are prepared to meet the criticism of the 
biased. We have knowledge of instances of the 



142 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

noblest sacrifices, the bravest deeds of heroism, 
and the chivalrous characteristics so well marked 
in him, that to dispute this point would be non- 
sense, or rather indicate a sad lack of informa- 
tion on the part of the investigator. Space does 
not permit us to give illustrations here, but a 
little investigation on the part of the reader will 
prove to him the truth of our statement. 

COLORED CHILDREN OF THE 
GENTLEMAN.— Should we compare the 
children of this class with those of the northern 
whites, we find a marked contrast and a heavy 
balance on their side in many cases, in regard 
to obedience to parents and respect for both 
whites and blacks of mature years. 

Any unbiased southerners will testify to this 
fact. This has been to us one of the most pleas- 
ing qualities found in these people. It counts 
for much. And then when we find that these 
children are also taught to be thrifty and in- 
dustrious and make something of themselves, we 
feel a sensation of hope and brighter days for 
the American colored folk. When we stop and 
think of the contrast between these little folks 
of color, who are for the most part kept busy 
in the field and home, or at something in the 
city or in school, and then are reminded of the 
great army of white boys and girls, North and 
South, who idle awav so much of their time that 



OR THE 1 ADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 










143 




*■*.- 



-»j 



mt*' 



GROUP OF COLORED CHILDREN OF THE 
COLORED GENTLEMAN. 



144 HOLM'S RACE ASSIAIILATION 

could be devoted to some useful as well as in- 
structive vocation, we cannot help but believe 
that these little dark people are on the right 
road to future moral and industrial greatness. 
We admonish parents to ever keep before them 
the duty of teaching their children to be indus- 
trious. It is with a philanthropic feeling, un- 
doubtedly well-meaning and genuine, that time 
and money are at present spent in northern cities 
for the establishment of well-equipped, extensive 
playgrounds for children. This is all good and 
well for the smaller ones, but that larger chil- 
dren should thus idle away their time in play, 
is not conducive to good morals or future good 
citizenship. The foundation for usefulness and 
industry must be laid early in a child's life. In 
other words, it must be taught early to do some- 
thing and form the habit of doing something. 
It is with great pleasure and profound admira- 
tion that we often watch the little brown hands 
do useful things and a great variety of things, 
and the little minds ever busy to conjure up some 
way in which the thing in hand might be done a 
little quicker and a little better. As for intel- 
ligence; these children certainly deserve great 
credit. But it is phrenologically known that 
Negroes are generally bright in early childhood, 
and in the cross breeds none of this native alert- 
ness seems to be lost; neither have we found that 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 144 

the Stamina of the Negro is lost in the children 
of the fairer parents, or in the offspring of a 
white man and a fair colored woman. The re- 
sult of such crossing depends invariably upon 
the constitution and health of the parties who 
thus cross, as it does with people of the same 
race. 

We do not give illustrations to prove these 
statements here, but have simply touched upon 
this matter in passing, to prepare the reader for 
a fuller discourse. 

A BAD ELEMENT, NOT A CREDIT.— 
It is not the colored man's fault that he is not 
what the whites would wish him to be. The 
power that moves and controls the destiny of 
all mankind, includes him and shapes him as 
well as every other creature in the evolutionary 
process. There is an element among them, to 
be sure, that is not a credit to the race or to our 
age. And we arc convinced that the southern 
states must, in the near future, provide means to 
rid themselves of this degenerate, criminal class. 
Why such men as Senator Tillman, ex-Gov- 
ernor Vardaman and others should so hopelessly 
lose themselves in the race question, is more than 
we can comprehend. An incredible amount of 
harm is done the South by such men. They do 
not represent the real sentiment of their country, 
or any country, but arouse the devilish, groveling 



146 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

instinct of the bloodthirsty beast of prey, with- 
out a shadow of justice or reason. Let human 
justice step in, calm, considerate, and the race 
question will be solved and settled for all time, 
and a superior people will be the result; and 
this great Southland will blossom like a rose, 
and its dusky citizens will prove indispensable 
to the greatest of all countries on earth. 

We here ask, is it fair, is it just that the en- 
lightened, respectable colored people of the 
South should be classed with their unfortunate, 
depraved black brothers? Should those who 
have striven against mountains of obstacles, and 
have risen in spite of them, be thus classed? 
Should any white man. North or South, with 
any sense of decency, of justice, ever open his 
mouth and say "all Negroes are alike?" 



OR THE FADING LEOPARDS SPOTS 147 



CHAPTER VII 

COLOR AGAINST WHITE 

A WRONG FEELING.— A feeling pre- 
vails anionic a scattered class of colored people 
in the South and elsewhere, that the whites are 
invariably opposed to them socially — that there 
can never exist a feeling between them to the ex- 
tent of co-operation in business, society and re- 
ligion — visiting and returning visits, and in other 
ways cultivate the Christian spirit, as becomes 
a free people of a free country. 

No\Y, while wc have found that the common 
run of whites, which constitutes a majority, are 
opposed to and prejudiced against socially, in- 
dustrially, politically or religiously mingling 
with color; we have discovered, and are aware 
of, a spirit of liberality or toleration in a 
cultured few in nearly every neighborhood 
throughout the country, that points toward a 
better fraternal feeling and the social emancipa- 
tion of at least the better class of people of color 
in the near future. Furthermore, it cannot be 
denied that the colored people themselves are 
to blame for a great deal of the nefarious color- 
phobia contagion prevalent in America. When 
we started out to prepare this book we promised 



148 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ourselves and all concerned that we would tell 
the truth, so help us God, and that promise 
stands. 

The Negro cannot forever fall back on the 
fact that he has been a slave, and consequently 
is irresponsible. That he was taught to steal 
and must steal still; that he was taught, by cruel 
treatment, to hate the white man, and that he 
must hate him still; that he was in poverty, 
superstition and ignorance, and must continue 
to plead poverty, ignorance and immunity from 
all responsibility. We tell an absolute truth 
when we say that there exists as much prejudice 
of color against white today, as white has ever 
harbored against color. We have made numerous 
experiments along this line, and have, for the most 
part, found that the better class of Negroes have 
no fraternal feeling or sociability toward the 
white man in the South. No matter how kind 
the white man may be toward them, or how far he 
may press his society upon them, there is gen- 
erally little or no response, and he is made to 
feel that he is none too welcome among them. 
Yet, we have heard the complaint by this class, 
that the white man will not recognize them or 
treat them with respect, socially. 

A FRATERNAL SPIRIT AND A TIE 
THAT BINDS.— Not long ago a refined, in- 
telligent southern gentleman, who has been a 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 149 

confederate soldier, told us that in all his long life 
and varied experiences with the "darkey," he 
could sincerely say that he would far rather 
have a good colored family for a close neighhor, 
and his intimate friends, to any whites. He 
could call upon them at any time, in case of need 
or emergency, and they would generally stand 
ready and willing to assist you and do what they 
could for you. And these old southerners do 
not speak thus flippantly, or without tangible 
reasons. Perchance, their thoughts sometimes 
revert to the "dear old plantation, \vay befo de 
wah,'' and they once more feel themselves 
nestled in the big, soft arms, against the broad, 
heaving bosom, beneath which the throbbing 
of a big, loving heart could be felt; and they 
again catch the broad smile, and see the row of 
glittering white teeth, and the play of sunshine 
light up that big, black, maternal face; and they 
again hear the cooing of the old plantation mel- 
odies, as they are gently rocked to and fro, until 
they lose themselves once more in the dreamland 
of slumber on the armsof theirold black mammy, 
their dear old mammy, long since gone to the 
dreamland from whence there is no return. No 
monument may shade her lonely grave, telling 
of her life of love and devotion to the holy cause 
of rearing some of the greatest men and women 
of their generation, yet she was a heroine. 



150 




HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




<',>' 



.-m- 



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THE OLD BLACK MAMMY. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 151 

In all human associations there are some ties 
that bind — they are in the blood — that no 
amount of succeeding prejudice or growing 
chasms of reversed conditions, or upheavals of 
social controversy, or man's inhumanity to man 
can sever. Such a tie, if we look for it, we 
still find underneath all the hubbub and rubbish 
of late years' degeneracy of both whites and 
blacks in the South. It is often asserted that 
this lofty sentiment, so strongly rooted in the 
hearts of the true southern gentleman, expresses 
only his appreciation of the faithfulness of the 
Negro as a servant; but that it is not meant to 
convey any thought of equality. This is un- 
doubtedly true in most cases, but where this good 
will is exercised between the races, there can be 
but a short step left to a final social understand- 
ing. Many men and women. North and South,, 
who have the kindest feeling toward the Negro, 
dare not express their sympathy for fear of pub- 
lic ridicule and social ostracism. They are 
justly branded as moral cowards; but the Negro 
who believes that all white men are his enemies, 
and are trying to "keep the Negro in his place," 
is not only a coward, but a breeder of dissension 
and an enemy of his race as well. 

WHAT CAN BE THE FIRST CAUSE 
OF THE IMPENDING SOCIAL ERUP- 
TION? — What can be at the bottom of or the 



152 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

first cause of the present impending social erup- 
tion between the races? This question is often 
asked. The Negro illiterate is a silent figure and 
a harmless one, so far as he has not been inocu- 
lated with the poison of dissension by the per- 
nicious agitator. There are Vardamans and 
Tillmans in the Negro race as well as in the 
white race; men who do more harm than good. 
We believe in healthy agitation, and encourage 
it everywhere; but we condemn a spirit of hat- 
red and prejudice wherever we meet it. 

Now the facts we have before us are these: 
The enlightened Negro has education and in- 
telligence enough to know right from wrong, 
and that he ought to condemn the wrong and up- 
hold the right in both races. The white man 
has long and faithfully fought the battles of the 
Negro. He has spilt his blood and generously 
sacrificed his life for him; he has spent millions 
upon millions of his money to educate him and 
better his conditions; he has not even hesitated 
to enter the jungles of his native haunts to bring 
light and the gospel of truth to the dark con- 
tinent. The best brain and the greatest minds 
of the white race in America are even today 
championing the cause of the Negro. Should 
not the Afro-American turn about and stop the 
boastful spirit of bragism — of what he has done 
since his emancipation — and give credit to the 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 153 

faithful men and women of the white race who 
have assisted hi'm, and without whom he could 
have done but little under prevailing conditions 
worthy of his great race? We contend that the 
Negro has not done more than he ought to have 
done; and today he is not doing half as much as 
he ought to do in the way of bettering his con- 
ditions. Again, in connection with this thought, 
we have the fact that nearly all the people of 
mixed blood are leaders of the race, and that 
this relationship which exists between the races 
ought to be a means of cementing them instead 
of separating them. This process of cementing, 
if it may be called that, is going on at a tre- 
mendous rate in many parts of the country, as 
we prove elsewhere. So it cannot be that racial 
hatred on the part of the colored man, exists 
because of ignorance or paternal relationship. 
The first cause must be traced elsewhere. It lies 
not in the lack of intelligence or education, or 
in the lack of blood admixture ; but in the mental 
habit of finding the flaws and shortcomings of 
the white man. Naturally imaginative in his 
make-up, he often pictures to himself, and 
argues the point with others, that all men with 
white faces are his enemies. And it is curious, 
sometimes his own face is nearly as white as 
his father's! 



154 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




^^■. 




K% 




t* 
% 






'J 



He is a sort of leech that lives by other men's toil. The result 
of cigarettes and "dopL." 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 155 

THEY HAVE KINDLED THEIR OWN 
FIRE. — The fire of their own kindling is roar- 
ing, and the soup in their own domestic pot is 
boiling over. They are stirring with their might, 
and are endeavoring to inhere the unattainable 
without a semblance of qualification, in many 
instances. 

These same people of color who so vigorously 
stir their pot, are harping continually on one 
string, trying to convince us, meanwhile, that 
they are innocent angel-martyrs, and absolutely 
irresponsible for the present unsatisfactory con- 
dition between the races; and yet, they are the 
shapers of their own future — the architects of 
their own fortune. They stand today in a posi- 
tion where they can prove themselves a true 
brother to the white man, and finally compel 
him to recognize them as such, if they will it. 
On the other hand they can show a spirit of ha- 
tred and importance that will forever rupture 
the relations and future welfare of a great, mixed 
American people. 

THE MOST DANGEROUS CLASS OF 
NEGROES. — We now have in mind a class of 
Negroes who do not think deeper of or have a 
more tender regard for a white man, than that 
prompted by avarice. We have often come in 
contact with this hog. He covets the very ground 
upon which a white man walks, and works his 



156 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ruin wherever he may. He is the greatest enemy 
the race has today. If the white man would not 
find for him employment and the means of live- 
lihood, he would exercise very little care for the 
welfare of his white brother. It is the mighty 
dollar that prompts him to be on friendly terms 
with the whites. Those from whom he cannot 
so well succeed in getting this coveted United 
States currency, are not considered his friends. 
He is also a devotee of the tipping evil. The 
white man who slips a dollar into his palm is 
a fine gentleman. He likes to get something 
for nothing from the white people. He is a sort 
of leech that lives by the blood of other men's 
toil. The same spirit of avarice that prompted 
his remote ancestors, to sell into slavery their 
own children, is here manifested. He will sell 
his own wife and daughters into a life of shame. 
This is by all odds the most dangerous Negro 
we have. He is the man who believes that the 
white man owes him something. He claims that 
the South does by right belong to him, as his 
forefathers, when slaves, fought the wilderness 
and under the master's lash subdued it and made 
it inhabitable, and an inheritance that he must 
some day claim as his own by right of the sub- 
jugation of his progenitors. We have heard 
him express the hope that some day when the un- 
avoidable crisis is due, England, France, or some 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 157 

Other great foreign power would intervene, and 
he would then gain full possession of all the 
wealth of the South. 

But the crowning sign of mental decrepitude 
manifests itself in the total absence of regard for 
all whites and even for his own people, and in 
the hateful "let me alone" spirit of independence 
of a poisonous, reptilian nature. Only so far 
as he is compelled to associate with the whites 
to get their money or means of subsistence, will 
he consent to submit to the social customs of 
courtesy and decent behavior in their presence, 
and were it not for fear we doubt whether even 
that much of good humor would be forthcoming. 
No confidence in and no respect for all whites, 
and for his own people whom he calls "niggers," 
is the accepted rule of his social calibre, and 
consequently no social harmony is emitted from 
this sort of being. Every respectable colored 
man and woman should openly repudiate him 
and censure him on every hand. 

He is a stumbling block to his own people, 
and a snare, deception, and imposition to all 
with whom he comes in contact. In his scien- 
tific research the author has had more trouble 
in obtaining a true diagnosis of this class than 
any other. He met with more cunning, sham, 
and hypocracy in this scattered class than in the 
class of the sin-steeped black quarters of large 



158 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

cities. It does not take very much of the wrong 
agitation extant, to incense this class to all kinds 
of violence. Injustice breeds contempt and red- 
dens a hand in anarchy. 

SECRET ORDERS AMONG THE NE- 
GROES. — The many secret orders among the 
Negroes, we believe, should inculcate a spirit of 
patriotism and love of country, that would root 
out all wrong impressions and desires to become 
traitors of a great country and a great people, 
who have given them educational advantages 
and freedom in such vast numbers as no other 
country in the history of the world has ever done 
before. 

We do not say that the secret orders are creat- 
ing anti-American sentiments among the Ne- 
groes; but we do say that there can be, and to 
some extent undoubtedly is, unconsciously creat- 
ed such a danger. The hundreds of thousands 
of members of the various secret orders are today 
the shapers of the destiny of the colored people 
in America; no intelligent member of the race 
will deny this. They are even more potent at 
present than the church and school. We do not 
speak carelessly when we say that the military 
training in many of these societies is one of the 
greatest impending dangers to which the peace 
of the country, the welfare of the race, and the 
loyalty of the Negro is exposed. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 159 

We have been told by some of the leading 
ministry of the colored church that the Negro 
is society cursed — that the secret orders are dis- 
placing the interest in, and crippling the vitality 
of, the Christian church. No man, not even a 
Negro can, at a dollar or a dollar and a half 
per day, belong to two or three secret orders and 
at the same time be a live member of a church, 
and support a family in the bargain. Somebody 
is going to suffer as a consequence. His wife 
may have to take in extra washing or more con- 
genial work in order to keep all dues paid, and 
wear herself out in the effort, as many a brave 
and devoted colored woman is doing. 

But, vou say, what has this to do with the sub- 
ject under consideration? Just this: The Negro 
is an extremist. He will go into a thing he likes 
up to his ears, and suffer as a consequence. The 
show, mystery and discipline of many secret 
orders are attractive to him, and he goes into 
them with the blind enthusiasm of his emotional 
nature, without first counting the cost. And with 
guns and swords, and other parapharnalia of 
martial warfare at hand in some of these orders, 
and an exaggerated consciousness of their eifi- 
cacy, it would be an easy matter to incense him 
to commit wholesale murder throughout the en- 
tire South, at a time when some black bastards 
and white imbeciles will cause a general race 



160 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

feeling. Guns and swords are to fight with. We 
have never found any other legitimate use for 
them. Every Negro family in the entire South 
is well supplied with fire-arms. The entire col- 
ored press and pulpit should condemn the use 
of fire-arms as a dangerous plaything, detri- 
mental to the best interests of the race, and have 
them displaced by the spelling book and reader. 
Guns and swords are relics of barbarism, and 
any people, white or black, who hoard them are 
designers of iniquity and in league with hell! 
Every state in the union should have a law, com- 
pelling the owner of a fire-arm to be registered 
and pay a license fee of not less than fifty dollars 
per annum. And for the violation of this law 
a penalty of three years' hard labor on a state or 
county road should be provided. 

All, or nearly all, secret orders claim their 
foundation in the Christian religion. Let us 
see whether this claim is a substantial one, or 
whether it is only a supposition after all. Our 
purpose is to show the reader of both races that 
if the secret orders are based upon the true Chris- 
tian religion, they ought to constitute a tie that 
should bind the two races so firmly together that 
no trouble, of whatever nature, could possibly 
rupture that relationship. No fake brotherhood 
can tie the two races and make them one. 

FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE.— Inorder 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 161 

to illustrate our point we will take out of the 
Sermon on the Mount the fundamental doctrine 
of Universal Brotherhood, which every Chris- 
tian church and brotherhood, founded upon the 
teachings of Christ, must follow: "Ye have 
heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, 
and a tooth for a tooth ; but I say unto you. That 
ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee 
on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take 
away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And 
whoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with 
him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and 
from him that would borrow of thee turn not 
thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been 
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate 
thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your en- 
emies, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them which despite- 
fully use you, and persecute you." 

For what purpose are we commanded and 
persuaded by Jesus to do thus? For this sublime 
purpose: "That ye may be (regardless of race, 
color, poverty or riches) the children of your 
Father which is in heaven; (here he gives us 
tangible reason) for He maketh His sun to rise 
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain 
on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them 

which love you, (those of your particular race, 
11 



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HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 






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ers: for they shall be called the 
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SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



163 



color or clan only) what reward have ye? Do 
not even the publicans the same? And if ye 
salute your brethren only, (those of your par- 
ticular lodge or church or society) what do ye 
more than others? Do not even the publicans 
so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect." 

We would like to quote more extensively, the 
religion of Jesus as taught by Himself in the 
Sermon on the Mount; but every reader who is 
willing may turn to the fifth chapter of Mat- 
thew, and obtain for himself the true doctrine, 
pertaining to the Christian religion. All other 
so-called Christian doctrines vanish into noth- 
ingness when compared with those of the foun- 
tain head. 

The secret orders may all be founded upon 
the Bible— everything, good and bad, is founded 
upon that— but the religion of Jesus stands for 
a Universal Brotherhood, so broad and far- 
reaching that it tolerates no sect, secret order, 
class, race or clan— "do not even the publicans 
so?" His religion makes every man a brother 
and every woman a sister. 

Let these principles of Universal Brotherhood 
be taught from every pulpit and in every school 
in the land, both white and colored, and a great 
people, whose voice would truly be the voice 
of God, would be the ultimate result. And what 



1«4 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

a magnificent country these United States would 
be with such a people, and such boundless re- 
sources at their command ? 

THE PINK-SKINNED MAN IS HIS 
FRIEND. — There are some things that the 
Afro-American must remember. The best friend 
the Negro ever had, since his pre-historic ances- 
tors were driven into or entered the steaming 
jungles of Africa, is the man of pink skin. Then, 
again, remember that the Negro has always been 
the greatest enemy of himself, from the earliest 
recorded history to the present day. And that 
the treatment received at the hands of his white 
superiors during the darkest days of American 
slavery, never exceeded the atrocity practiced 
upon himself as a naked savage in the jungles 
of Africa. Let us remember also, above all else, 
that this white enslaver has left his mark on the 
black enslaved; and that through his failings he 
has humiliated himself, in the blood that courses 
through the veins of the Afro-American. But 
for this and their existence on the western conti- 
nent, ten million more savages would still be 
groping in the trackless jungles, perhaps hunting 
their fellow man for food, sucking his blood and 
devouring his quivering flesh. 

We have often heard the complaint that all 
white folks judge the colored folks by the stand- 
ard of the criminal class. We know they do not. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS IM 

Many of the colored race inspire hatred toward 
the white race through their children, by many 
careless and pernicious remarks in their presence. 
How much of the present race feeling is thus 
created in the young of both races is hard to 
determine. It is often said that white children 
are born in the South to keep the Negro down. 
How many Negro children are born to make 
trouble for the whites is hard to estimate. 

It is contended that the ignorance of the Negro 
and the bad treatment received by the whites, 
is the cause of the present bad feeling toward 
the Caucasian. But the intelligent Negro knows 
very well that it, too, is ignorance on the part 
of the whites which causes the race feeling; and 
that this ignorance and lack of fraternal feeling 
is the cause of a great deal of the prejudice to- 
day. If the white and colored in this country 
could be educated up to the fact that each must 
live for all, and that the mistakes of one must 
not be held up before the other, color line and 
prejudice would soon die. And, naturally, we 
would live happy together. 

LOVE BEGETS LOVE.— Booker T. Wash- 
ington has well said: "Both races will grow 
strong, useful and generous in proportion as they 
learn to love each other instead of hating each 
other." 

Love is manifest in all Nature's handiwork. 



1(36 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

When man learns to understand the infinite wis- 
dom of human variety, his happiness is assured. 
He will then fully comprehend the fact that 
every man is his brother and every woman his 
sister — that the God of Nature has in His in- 
finite love and wisdom given a variety of hues 
to the skin of man for a divine purpose — that 
we have mental and physical dissimilarities for 
evolutionary growth. 

What a creature is man that he should revolt 
against the inevitable? Should he not bow in 
humble submission to the Infinite? Should he 
not rather thank Him for such beautiful var- 
ieties of colors, bodies and minds for our im- 
provement, elevation, enjoyment and happiness? 

The repetition of my race, my color, my clan 
breeds contention and hatred, uncalled for in this 
age of enlightenment. It should find no lodge- 
ment in the minds of true American citizens. 
We are "a people" and "the people," and not 
this race and that — a white and a black, a yellow 
and a brown. Those who insist upon the recog- 
nition of "my race and my people," are the un- 
mitigated enemies and traitors of our country, 
our God and our future welfare. 

"United we stand, divided we fall," should 
be the watchword of all the people. If the peo- 
ple insist upon absolute color lines and marked 
separation in the future, our union cannot sur- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 167 

vive the onslaught of Father Time. And for 
whom would it be darkest, should a race rup- 
ture dismantle the spirit of calmness in this great 
Southland? P^or none other that the man of 
color. Let him plunge into a race war, and he 
is doomed! \\'hat forty years and more of 
bloodless warfare against ignorance and poverty 
has wrought, one year of martial warfare would 
hopelessly cripple. 

Tell it again; scatter the seed abroad to every 
man, woman and child that Love is all-powerful^ 
and that the Hames thereof burn to the quick 
the foulest enemy that ever crawled on God's 
green earth ; and that the bite of serpents and the 
sting of scorpions of the human kind cannot 
harm those who put on the armor of Universal 
Brotherhood. 

A TERRIBLE DAY FOR AMERICA.— 
Capt. Richmond P. Hobson, gives a graphic de- 
scription in Cosmopolitan magazine for Septem- 
ber, 1908, as a possible outcome of war with 
Japan. We quote him as follows: 

"If, through delay in the arrival of our new 
fleet, (after the first one had been destroyed) 
Japan had time to repair and prepare her in- 
jured fleet, and our new fleet upon arrival, fool- 
ishly crossed the ocean and met disaster, then 
Japan would come into permanent control of 
the sea, and the Pacific coast would be invaded 



168 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

in force. Our nation would be turned into an 
army, but only reverses would attend attempts 
to dislodge the Japanese in full control of the 
slope from the coast to the mountains. The one 
sure way to proceed, the one that would be ulti- 
mately adopted, would be to draw upon our vast 
resources, quickly build a new fleet of great pre- 
ponderance, and send it around. 

"Its approach would signal the loss of control 
of the sea to the Japanese, and their forces would 
retire. With the mainland clear, our next move 
would be an expedition to recover Hawaii. This 
would involve a great transport service, but we 
would have created it in advance. After reduc- 
ing Hawaii and occupying it in force, our next 
move would be a great expedition against the 
Philippines. The stupendous army and the 
transport service would be at hand, and the 
Philippines would fall. Our next move would 
be an even greater expedition against Japan * * * 
America's ultimate victory would be complete, 
but it would be bought at a terrible price, not 
only because of the fabulous cost of armament 
and of pensions for a hundred years, not only 
because of the suffering and death of hundreds 
of thousands — even millions — of men, and the 
misery of their families, but the years of warfare 
and hatred would leave us a nation of soldiers, 
with militarism in complete control; our free in- 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS lt)9 

stitutions would totter, and liberty for mankind 
would be delayed for long centuries to come." 

Now, we would cautiously remark that Mr. 
Hobson does not make a single allusion to the 
ten million colored people already in our midst, 
whose sympathy would easily be enlisted with 
the little yellow man, who has, like the Negro, 
suffered humiliation and exclusion at the hands 
of the dominant, money grabbing, race hating 
American. The war Hobson has in mind would 
not be a war of nations as much as one of races — 
the colored races pitted against the white. Japan 
and China are a kin if it comes to that, and the 
Afro-American, who has tasted of the sweets of 
civilization, is also a distant relative. All of 
them, when once united, would stand man to man 
in defense of equality with the white-skinned 
man; and who dare prophesy that they would 
not get it? 

The Chinaman and Japanese have for centur- 
ies been taught that they are heaven-born — 
descended from the gods — and they will, when 
once powerful enough in a thorough union, 
demonstrate to the world that this assertion of 
their superiority must stand. The Negro, or 
rather colored Caucasian of America, through 
whose veins flows the blue blood of the south- 
ern aristocracy, is also ready to demonstrate that 
he is as good as his white father or grand parent. 
And the black man is catching the same spirit. 



170 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

If that terrible day should dawn in America, 
that would find the nation crippled and bleed- 
ing — when color is pitted against white — it 
would remember, as never a people remembered 
before, that no republic can live, no modern na- 
tion survive, in which race prejudice and color 
lines exist. America must stand united or die 
divided. A legal amalgamation of the races 
is essential to our national life. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 171 



CHAPTER VIII 

CRIME, LAW AND PUNISHMENT 

EYE FOR EYE, TOOTH FOR TOOTH. 

— The elements of crime are the same in essen- 
tial features in every part of the civilized world. 
Since the tablets of stone were handed down from 
Mount Sinai there have been certain acts recog- 
nized by almost the whole human family as in- 
imical to social order or individual rights. 

In the various stages of human development 
divers forms of punishment for crimes com- 
mitted have been devised and inflicted on the 
guilty. 

False notions of religions have, for instance, 
been instrumental in some misguided, semi-civil- 
ized peoples in promoting crime, and also in 
applying methods of punishments, shocking in 
the extreme to all highly developed and more 
sensitive minds. 

Many men, in different ages, have taken spe- 
cial delight in administering punishments for 
real or imaginary crimes committed by certain 
defenseless people. The Mosiac principles of 
punishment — eye for eye, tooth for tooth — has 
adhered to the practice of courts and juries 
throughout all the intervening centuries with 



172 HOLArS RACE ASSOIILATION 

wonderful persistence. It is only within recent 
years that some states in America have ventured 
to relax the law of a life for a life in the case of 
murder. 

It is not within the scope of this book to enter 
upon a thorough discussion of the law of crime 
and criminal procedure. Fact is, the writer is 
so absolutely opposed to the common method 
employed in the punishment of the criminal 
class, that to enlarge upon this subject would 
bring up a question that would require more 
space than could be allotted to it here. 

THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS PRAC- 
TICE. — It is hardly necessary to say that we are 
opposed to capital punishment for crimes com- 
mitted. Our opposition is based upon scientific 
reasons. 

First, we maintain that most crime, for which 
punishment is inflicted, is committed by beings 
who are unfortunately developed, mentally and 
physically, and are consequently more or less 
irresponsible. To take their lives does not im- 
prove the morals of a people, while, if justly 
considered, it adds only another crime to the 
one perpetrated by the criminals. 

Secondly, we maintain that crime is the result 
of the abnormal development of certain mental 
faculties in the brain of the criminal, and that 
all men possess these same mental el'^ments in 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 173 

a weaker or stronger degree, counter-balanced 
by other faculties promoting good, and that if 
a criminal, who is on the wrong side of mental 
balance, or out of self-control, is killed, the 
higher elements of his mind are also murdered. 
In other words, the good man in the criminal is 
killed along with the bad one. And no class of 
men, state or government, has a moral right to 
kill the good in the supreme economy of life, to 
rid themselves or society of the evil thereof. 

Furthermore, we maintain that no human be- 
ing should be thrust into a dungeon or locked 
into a prison for any considerable length of time. 
We consider this the most outrageous practice 
that has ever been contrived by monsters in hu- 
man form. If there is a purgatory anywhere in 
God's universe, it has its counterpart most glar- 
ingly portrayed in the black dungeon and iron 
cage of the ancient and modern prison system. 

HORRORS IN AMERICAN PRISONS. 
—A report published by the American Prison 
association is in effect an arraignment of the 
whole prison system in the United States. Two 
hundred and ninety institutions in 37 states were 
visited and carefully inspected. With a few ex- 
ceptions it was found that all sorts of horrors 
existed which could not be justified under any 
statute ever enacted. Prisons were hotbeds of 
disease, dangerous not only to the inmates but 



174 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

to the outside public. The character of the food 
and the way of serving it were revolting and de- 
moralizing. Overcrowding was a frightful evil. 
In Birmingham, Ala, 240 men were found in 
seventy-two cells, and twenty-five women in ten 
cells. In Los Angeles 135 men were found in 
eighty-eight cells. One person to a cell, the 
prison association says, is all that should be al- 
lowed. "It is a strong temptation," says the re- 
port, "to specify particular cities where nameless 
abuses exist; where little children are kept in 
rooms with polluted and diseased adults; where 
a poor insane victim of brain disorder howls all 
night in company with ruffians; where an honest 
fellow, unable to pay a fine for a spree, is locked 
in with thieves. These are not pictures from 
novels; they are bald prosaic facts set down by 
honest eyewitnesses in answer to printed ques- 
tions." Imprisonment without occupation, the 
report declares, is a straight path to insanity. In 
143 jails the men prisoners have no occupation, 
while in 155 the women prisoners have nothing 
to do. The association is strongly in favor of 
labor colonies where persons may be taught in 
an intelligent way to lead better and useful lives. 
It favors keeping prisoners until their reform 
is reasonably assured, but it is insistent that 
where no efifort at reform is made, the whole in- 
fluence of jails is debasing. In many jails in- 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 175 

flucnccs for good are meager, if not wholly lack- 
ing. Twenty-five jails do not provide any read- 
ing matter for prisoners. In eighty-eight no re- 
ligious services of any kind arc ever held. Un- 
doubtedly American prisons need investigation 
and reform as badly as any institution in the 
country. 

THK rxiTKD STATES PKXAL SYS- 
TEM IS A FAILURE.-Brand Whitlock, the 
loledo, Ohio reform mayor says: "Our penal 
system is a failure; only we do not know it yet. 
Governments have tried it for thousands of years, 
and our government is reported as saving that 
tiie tendency to crime still exists. Our penal 
system only hurts and never helps its victims, 
directly or indirectly, whether they are innocent 
or guilty. It deters some from committing crime 
and makes hypocrites of more, and it wholly ig- 
nores economic or social causes for crime and 
makes no allowance for personality. It is a fail- 
ure because it is founded in fear and hatred, and 
cruelty and cowardice. It mercilessly grinds the 
poor and the weak in the interest of the strong. 
It Droceeds from and dwells on the bad in man, 
not the good.* We shall have a system that will 

.rnJ''^^^" ^IcKcnzie Cleland says : "By this system crime has in- 
creased so rapidly that the authorities are now. in this year of our 
Lord mnetcer hundred and nine, afraid to publish the facts, afraid 
to make known the truth. The last Government statis fcs on 
crmie were published in 1890. two decades ago. In ] WO the 
figures were gathered, but the Government suppressed them " 



176 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

do good only when society recognizes its own re- 
sponsibility for crime and lives up to it, and 
when it dwells upon and develops the good in 
man instead of the bad. * * * It might be well 
for the government to get out some statistics 
showing why there is more crime after financial 
panics and industrial depressions than in good 
times. Why the hold-up man and purse- 
snatchcr always turns up with the first cold 
weather, and why, when the mills shut down, 
there are more hoboes and yeggs on freight 
trains. You might pursue all these little crimes 
to their original source and cause. It would not 
be long before there would be no necessity for 
statistics on crime, and then, in some idle hour, 
the clerks in the statistical bureau might occupy 
themselves with tracing the relation between the 
vulgar crimes of force and violence and the ar- 
tistic crimes of craft and cunning — artistic 
crimes which do not have to break laws because 
they make the laws to suit themselves." 

WHO MAKES THE CRIMINAL?— Let 
us ask you here — who makes the criminal and 
how does he originate? In chapter eighteen of 
this book we give a full scientific answer. 

Can we accuse the Author of all life for 
crimes committed by His erring subjects? Such 
a doctrine has never found great prominence. 
Man has, since the dawn of reason, believed in 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 177 

the influence of an evil spirit — devil — the author 
of all evil. This belief has been prominent in 
every age; but today, in this age of spiritual 
illumination and reason, man has come closer to 
the heaving bosom of the Almighty, giver and 
preserver of all life, and as a consequence he 
has knocked the horns from off his majesty, the 
devil, and the clattering noise of his cloven hoof 
is no longer discernable. Man has gained a 
clearer conception of the natural laws under- 
lying and dominating human kind. We are 
now beginning to realize that the evil we have 
to fight, the devils we have to combat, are the 
conflicting elements in human nature. In the 
complicated machinery of our minds we find 
the elements of Destructiveness, of Combative- 
ness, Amativeness, etc., on the one hand, and the 
elements Benevolence, Spirituality, Human Na- 
ture, etc., on the other. These elements are 
necessary in our mental make-up as free moral 
agents. Because of Combativeness, Secretiveness, 
Amativeness, Destructiveness, etc., we do not 
cut off our arm that strikes, or leg that kicks, or 
cut out our tongue because of blasphemy or ly- 
ing. What do we do? We try by the counter- 
balance of Human Nature, Benevolence, Con- 
scientiousness, Spirituality, etc., to control our 
tongue, elevate and poise ourselves. In the com- 
plicated machinery of society the same elements 

12 



178 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

of so-called good and evil exist. Why must the 
evil thereof be forever strangled, beheaded, or 
indungeoned? Why not make other provisions 
for the safe-keeping of the bad element of so- 
ciety, and still others that will ultimately prevent 
the existence of said element, so that society, like 
the individual, may finally be balanced? We 
shall show the reader that the criminal must be 
scientifically dealt with, if society is to be saved 
and humanity is to be improved. 

THE LYNCH LAW.— The southern people 
have for many years resorted to the lawless prac- 
tice of lynching Negroes without trial and con- 
viction. At first this lawless method of punish- 
ment was designed for those only who had com- 
mitted rape on white women; later it was re- 
sorted to for other grave crimes like murder, 
while at the present time any Negro who is ac- 
cused of burning a building or stealing a chicken, 
may be lynched, shot or burned by an organized 
"law and order league," or by a mob organized 
on the spot for a lynching bee. About twelve 
years ago it was generally believed that this 
atrocity was about nearing its end, but notwith- 
standing previous agitation by such noted persons 
as Judge Tourgee, Dr. Morehouse, Ida Wells- 
Barnett, Frederick Douglass and others, the evil 
seems to be deeper rooted in the depraved hearts 
of the offspring of lynch-advocates today than it 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS ]7<> ' 

ever was in the hearts of their parents. We sup- 
pose the law of heredity is not dormant in this,- 
regard. As a small white boy said to his father 
not long since: "Papa. I have seen one nigger 
shot, one nigger lynched, and now I want totee 
one burned." Of the 5,000 lynchings in the last 
twenty-five years, ninety-five per cent were 
Negroes charged with assaults on white women 
and girls. It has been noted that these killings 
have become more cruel and on slighter reported 
excuses. Burning at the stake, which was begun 
in Texas sixteen years ago has been more fre- 
quent than shooting and almost as frequent as 
lynching. It is a hard matter to get a correct 
figure of the actual number of Negro killings 
throughout the South per year, as we are aware 
of the fact that many such killings are never re- 
ported to the newspapers. Five thousand in the 
last twenty-five years, we consider far too conser- 
vative to cover the actual number murdered by 
white outlaws. It is the terrible debasing effect 
these killings produce in the community, that the 
people must some day reckon with. When laws 
are openly defied, anarchy may at any time de- 
bauch the country. 

Within the radius of thirty-five miles of the 
writer's former home there were five killings 
within two years. Three were lynched for rape. 
One of them was accused of this crime by a white 



180 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



• ".""vn'^iin'^A.yw^w'))". ' """" """"" ' " ' " !! , ' JM ' , ■ ' : ' .■ 





ft 



\f I 




i 1-J 





taiiit 




■aJ^UnajlMliaMteiMaa^Bta 



BURNING AT THK STAKE. 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 181 

woman in order to shield a relative, who, she 
later confessed, was the real culprit who threat- 
ened to kill her. One was lynched for killing a 
man, and the other one was murdered by white 
fiends while peacefully slumbering by the road- 
side, for no other crime than that he was black. 
The night-rider outrages were but other features 
of the same lawless tendency, manifested by the 
same class of whites. 

THE NEGRO AS A CRIMINAL.— 
"There is too much crime among us," says 
Booker T. Washington, in his book, "My Life 
and Works." "The figures for a given period 
show that in the United States thirty per cent of 
all the crime committed is by Negroes, while 
they constitute only twelve per cent of the entire 
population."* 

Everybody who has seriously studied the 
Negro question is aware of this; and no one 
could give a better reason for the existence of 
this undesirable condition than Mr. Washington. 
He says, "A large amount of crime among us 
grows out of the idleness of our young men and 
women." This is a true statement as far as an 
ordinary surface observation is concerned. We 
contend that the sporting proclivity in the pres- 



*Without doubt Okolona has a larger Negro population than 
than any other North Mississippi town, yet criine here is almost 
unknown." — Okolona Sun. 



182 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ent generation is too intensely cultivated, owing 
to favorable opportunities brought about by the 
changing conditions throughout the South. 

When a young Negro sport can earn as much 
money in a city in one week as his father used to 
earn on a plantation in a month, he is generally a 
candidate for partial idleness and crime. He is 
a stumbling block to the honest colored man who 
deserves decent wages, and who works hard to 
maintain a respectable home and educate his 
children. 

• The idleness of the young men and women of 
the race is often traced to the criminal neglect of 
a certain class of shiftless parents, who fail to 
rear their children by precept and example in 
the ways of respectability and industry. Parents 
of this class who steal from their white neighbors 
as well as their black, cannot expect their sons 
and daughters to refrain from stealing, and com- 
mitting graver crimes when opportunity per- 
mits. 

We fully expound in chapter eighteen, that 
like begets like — a thief begets a thief, a rapist at 
heart begets a real rapist, a murderer at heart 
begets a real murderer, etc. 

Booker T. Washington says: "I condemn 
with all the indignation of my soul the beast in 
human form guilty of assaulting a woman. Let 
us all be alike in this particular." 



OR THE FADIXG LKOP^ARD'S SPOTS 183 

We wish to remind Mr. \\'ashington of the 
fact that a "beast in human form" must be con- 
ceived, born and reared, before it can commit the 
unspeakable crime on a woman. Why not go 
back a little and attack the cause, the source of 
the beast nature, and condemn it first with "all 
the indignation of our soul?" Is not the parent 
of an ill-begotten child responsible for the result 
of that issue, be he white or black? As two con- 
sumptive parents will beget children with con- 
sumptive tendencies, so, too, will criminal par- 
ents beget criminally inclined children. It is 
nothing but the pcnned-up beast nature in the 
parents that breaks out in their children. This 
beast nature icas first cultivated in the African 
slave in America by the unbridled beast passions 
of the slave-master avho owned them, and has 
now become a second nature in both races. Onlv 
by refinement and a cultivation of the higher 
faculties in the races, as they commingle, can this 
beast nature be ultimately restored to its normal 
channel. We condemn, in the strongest English 
at our command, the hell-born custom of Amer- 
ica, which forbids the commingling of the races 
for moral and religious culture, while it tolerates 
the mixing for evil purposes; thus utterly cor- 
rupting both people. As long as there is no re- 
spect for the colored womanhood of America, 
by the white man of the country, so long will it 



184 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

be impossible to cultivate and infuse a higher 
moral tone in the race. We wish to impress, in- 
delibly, upon the readers' minds that as soon 
as legal intermarriage displaces the old custom 
of illicit mixing, the beast in both races will dis- 
appear. 

FEW OUTRAGES COMMITTED IN 
THE NORTH — WHY? — How often do we 
hear of Negro outrages committed on white 
women in such great Negro centers as Chicago, 
New York, Philadelphia, and other places in the 
free states of the North? Very seldom. And 
those Negroes are not unlike the southern Negro, 
as they have largely migrated there from the 
South in recent years. It is in the old slave 
states that nearly all assaults on white women are 
reported to transpire; and just where the unnat- 
ural social relations between the races are strong- 
est these outrages are most frequent. This goes 
to prove, without further argument here, that it 
is not so much the Negro, or the colored man, 
or the beast in both races after all that is to 
blame, as the unnatural relations maintained be- 
tween them, which gives all the privileges to one, 
and none of the advantages to the other. A re- 
spectable colored man, who has married a white 
wife, cannot travel with her in these old slave 
states without being in imminent danger of ar- 
rest and mob lynching. We know of several 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 185 

cases where black men, who had married white 
colored women, got themselves into trouble when 
their wives' Negro blood was unknown. In such 
portions of the South where foreign influence 
has somewhat changed conditions, these outrages 
on women seldom occur, and a colored man is 
there safest with a white wife, or apparently 
white, as also is a white man with a colored wife. 
So we say again, in this connection, that the beast 
in both races can best be eliminated from our 
midst, by displacing the old custom of illicit 
mixing with a legal intermarriage provision in 
the entire country. 

WHO DOES THE LYNCHING IN THE 
SOUTH? — It is a wrong supposition that these 
lynchers arc always composed of the scum of so- 
ciety. They often represent men of intelligence 
and high moral (?) standing in the community. 
The reason they resort to this method of lawless 
execution is self-evident. The Negro is a poor, 
most often defenseless creature, and to kill him 
means just one less in the community, that is all. 
It is yet so deep-seated in the mind of the old 
South that swift and certain death, regardless of 
the offense, must befall the Negro (for any real 
or imaginary crime committed for which the 
lynch law seems to be provided), that to think 
of saving the valuable energy of that human be- 
ing for the good of the State, has not, it seems, 



186 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

even occurred to them. With all the wisdom 
and moral sentiment of the South, no provisions 
for the real Negro criminals of this class have 
been made other than death, and consequently 
that much loss of valuable energy to the State 
has incurred, that cannot be replaced. Why not 
make provisions for the establishment of State 
Eunuch Institutions, where this energy may be 
turned to good account? Instead of making 
such provisions, all kinds of schemes are con- 
cocted to exterminate this class of criminals. 
And as the cause is not removed, they will not 
run short of material on which to practice and 
wreak vengeance, and by which to inculcate fear 
in those who may be next executed. A very 
credible editorial discourse is given in a promi- 
nent southern Alabama newspaper, which por- 
trays well the highest sentiment on this subject. 
We give it below, as it will be of value in connec- 
tion with what we say: 

THE SUBSTITUTE FOR LYNCH LAW. 
— "Although lynch law maybe accepted by some 
as the best available remedy for the prevention 
of certain forms of crime, no one, we think, can 
regard its permanency as an institution with any 
but greatest apprehension, as being in essence a 
violation of the constitution under which we 
live, and therefore destructive of good govern- 
ment. Should we not attempt to devise a method 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 187 

of procedure that, while meeting the special ex- 
igencies of life, will conform to law? There ap- 
pear to be rvvo influences at work in bringing 
lynchings to pass. One is the feeling that in 
many localities there is actually no police pro- 
tection; and, therefore, lives must be protected 
by an invisible entity, a fear inspired by the sud- 
den appearance and violent action of the vigi- 
lance committee, or of the mob. It is sought to 
impress upon the minds of the evil-disposed that, 
although no policeman be present, and the inhab- 
itant is alone and unguarded, there yet exists a 
force within call, that when aroused, is vengeful 
and strong. The other influence is the repug- 
nance that all honorable men have in bringing 
into public view the victims of brutal assaults, 
forcing them, in accordance with the forms of 
law, to attend an open trial whereat the criminal 
is tried for his crime. A third influence, al- 
though a less one, is the desire for the satisfaction 
of the hatred and revenge that are aroused when 
a crime of brutality is committed. Taken gen- 
erally, lynchings are performed with a cold 
determination, showing that the two greater in- 
fluences are at work. How shall we accommo- 
date our laws so that persons in isolated situa- 
tions will be secure, and the tender and delicate 
victims shall be spared the humiliation of having 
their woes publicly exposed, yet no principle of 
human right be disregarded? 



188 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

A KIND OF MOCK TRIAL.— "It would 
seem that the way to go about it is to change the 
forms of law so as to give them some of the fea- 
tures of lynch law, i. e., immediate arraignment, 
swift trial, and punishment without delay; and 
all, without the publicity that attends our regular 
procedure. There should be legal provision for 
immediate arraignment, with special forms of 
trial, so that it will be assured that in a very short 
time the whole matter will be disposed of; and 
there need be no publicity, provided that there 
is assurance of a fair trial. The object of pub- 
licity is to prevent injustice, unfair trials, and 
despotic infliction of punishments; but in these 
days of general information and civic freedom, 
it is possible to bar out the public without sus- 
picion that anything unfair will be practiced at 
the expense of the accused. Why, indeed, 
should the victim of a brute's criminal lust be 
brought into court at all, or forced to testify 
about so horrid an experience? The accused 
must be confronted by his accuser, if the prin- 
ciple of our laws is to be obeyed, but is it at all 
necessary that this should be in open court, or in 
any court at all? It can be as well done in the 
privacy of the home, with judge and jury only 
present as the guarantors of the observance of the 
legal form. 

VIRGINIA HAS SUCH A LAW.— "We 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 189 

understand that Virginia has a special statute af- 
fording speedy trial, with private procedure in 
certain cases, and that since that statute was 
passed there has not been a lynching in the state. 
We might as well study such a law and see 
how far it may be adopted for use here. \A'e 
should eagerly seek out the best remedy for our 
unhappy situation and apply it; for the situation 
is truly unhappy, and it is growing worse instead 
of better, and is already well nigh intolerable. 
Let us arrange so that the Law shall be the ex- 
pression of the absolute needs of the time, and 
it will then be found, we believe, that we will 
enlist in its enforcement all sorts and conditions 
of men, regardless of color. The result cannot 
fail to be to our great advantage." — Mobile 
Register. 

STATE EUNUCH INSTITUTIONS.— 
We have intimated the establishment of State 
Eunuch Institutions. Wc believe that every 
state should have its penal farms; and that espe- 
cially here in the South the Negro criminal 
should be taken care of on such farms. Missis- 
sippi has its penal farms which are far in ad- 
vance of penitentiaries or prison walls. Though 
only as yet in a crude, experimental stage, a num- 
ber of abuses being reported, they have been 
made to pay the state a revenue besides all run- 
ning expenses. Georgia has also abolished her 



190 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




' %. 





% cZ 



TIIRE15 PEXCIL STUDIES IN CRIME BY THE AUTHOR. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARDS SPOTS 



191 



unspeakable peonage system, and is falling in line 
with Mississippi. The occupants of penal farms 
cannot only support themselves, but could be 
made to do splendid service for the people of the 
state in the way of building public roads. 
"Prominent men," of the vigilance committee, 
will bump over country roads that are a disgrace 
to a Hottentot and resort to lynching bees? and 
help to kill several hundred powerful Negro 
men annually, whose energv might be utilizecTin 
bettering the highways of the state. Wc contend 
that every southern state should set aside and 
equip a farm for the reception of Negro crim- 
inals of a class that should be rendered sterile by 
the authority of the state; and that this author- 
ity should extend to white criminals of a like 
class. We contend that the lynching of Negroes 
for any crime committed is inhuman and bar- 
barous; and that all law abiding people of both 
races should demand of the officers of the law 
that the perpetrators of this crime against justice 
be apprehended and severely punished. During 
the campaign President Taft said to an audience 
of colored ministers concerning the lynching 
evil: 'The best remedy, and the necessary one, 
IS an improvement in the administration of our 
common laws, and the holding to strict account of 
officers of the law who do not use all possible 
means to prevent and suppress such outbreaks." 



192 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

We know positively that at some lynchings 
the officers of the law are in sympathy with the 
mob, and assist instead of retarding it. We be- 
lieve that the federal government ought to step 
in and inquire into these lynching outrages, and 
bring the law-breakers of these mobs to justice. 
When the state will not protect its citizens the 
government must. 

THE STERILIZATION OF CRIMI- 
NALS. — The criminal class is a class to be de- 
plored, but not hated. Hate is born of igno- 
rance and breeds corruption. A deluded, venge- 
ance-wreaked mob which hangs orburns a crim- 
inal is as deplorable a criminal class as the crim- 
inal himself. This particular criminal class is 
the outgrowth of a corrupt social system in the 
South and elsewhere, and now, since it is with us 
and increasing, it must be scientifically dealt with 
— the only just method to rid the country of it. 

In this enlightened age any race of people can 
be improved in any desired direction by proper 
means. A progressive farmer does not hesitate 
to cut off an unruly, vicious, unprofitable portion 
of his flock, in order to produce the desired re- 
sults. What the intelligent farmer does, the state, 
in the case of unruly members, must do. But 
the South has done little to curb the Negro or 
white criminal class. Promiscuous cohabiting 
among them and with the whites increases this 



OR THE FADING LEOPARDS SPOTS 



193 



class to an alarming degree. There is also noth- 
ing effective done to check the spread of tuher- 
culosis, which claims many thousands annually. 
In fact, nothing effective is done among this peo- 
ple hy the southern states to build up .md im- 
prove their conditions to any extent along social, 
moral or physical lines. The sterilization of the 
criminal and degenerate class would inllict no 
hardship upon it, and would prove a great bless- 
ing to both races. We do not believe that any 
serious objections wouhj arise among the better 
class of colored people, should this measure be 
inaugurated throughout the South. The daugh- 
ters and wives of the better families among them, 
as well as the lower class, are exposed to the de- 
pravity of these inhuman beings, and the white 
man's law is generally of non-effect when it per- 
tains to these people. We are aware that no col- 
ored maiden can hardly obtain justice or protec- 
tion at law, be her paramour white or black. If 
a law, providing for the sterilization of the 
feebleminded, degenerates and criminals is re- 
puted to be needed in \\'isconsin, of all the world 
it is most needed right here in the South. We 
are proud of Wisconsin, and especially of ex- 
Assemblyman Mr. Elver, of the Wisconsin Leg- 
islature, for so bravely fighting for a measure 
several years ago that means so much, that is of 
such vast importance to mankind, especially 



194 HOLMS R.\CE ASSIMIL.\TIOX 

when once adopted among the mixed southern 
people. Be it "cruel, inhuman, contran* to di- 
vine law and unconstitutional," as legislative op- 
ponents in Wisconsin have argued, it is neverthe- 
less etcrnallv right. "Lead us not into tempta- 
tion, but deliver us from evil" is of non-effect, 
if we continue to allow evil to be bred by the 
wholesale and let hell multiply. We are glad 
that several northern states discourage evil prop- 
agation. 

The American Prison Association in session at 
Seattle, Washington, in August (1909), spent 
most of its open session in a heated debate on a 
paper written by Dr. H. C. Sharp, formerly sur- 
geon in the Indianapolis Reformatory', on the 
"Indiana Plan" of performing surgical opera- 
tions on hopeless idiots and confirmed criminals. 
A delegate moved that Dr. Sharp's paper be sup- 
pressed on the ground that the Indiana plan was 
contrar}* to the Bible. One delegate objected to 
the debate being continued before women, who 
composed at least one-third of the audience. 
Thereupon the women delegates at once took the 
lead in the controversy, led bv Mrs. Weeks, pres- 
ident of the Philadelphia Social Purin* League. 
Mrs. L. R. Easr^'ood of South Dakota, advo- 
cated chloroforming idiots and that made the 
delegates laugh. 

During the debate it was announced that Con- 



OR THE FADING LEONARD'S SPOTS 195 

necticut and California had followed Indiana. 
The motion to suppress the paper was not put to 
a vote. President Gilmore said it would not have 
received three votes. 

The debate on the "Indiana plan," for pre- 
venting the propagation of criminals and idiots, 
developed almost unanimous sentiment for the 
plan. The discussion, according to President 
Gilmore, of Toronto, Canada, was one of the 
most profitable the association has held for years. 

Judge B. R. Lindsey, of juvenile court fame, 
said among other things: 

"Our criminal law, as it came down to us 
through feudalism, was an instrumentality of 
government far from perfect. * * * "Th^ 
time may come, however far in the future it may 
be, or, however unprepared we mav be for it, 
even now, when the state will come to deal with 
a criminal much as we now do with the insane." 

CONTRARY TO DIVINE LAW.— Talk 
about the effort to improve the human race being 
contrary to divine law? Can anything be more 
absurd and shallow? Does not man possess the 
wisdom and power to co-operate with his Cre- 
ator in improving, by crossing and recrossing the 
various species of plant and animal life? And 
he has not hesitated to employ this power to its 
full extent. Not even felt that he was violating 
a divine law and a constitution. Luther Bur- 



196 HOLM'S RACE ASSLMILATION 

bank must be an unpardonable sinner, for he has 
done such an inestimable amount of work in the 
improvement of plants. 

In the improvement of the human race every 
legitimate means should be employed; and noth- 
ing is more eflfective than the sterilization of that 
class, absolutely unfit to multiply, which popu- 
lates the world with misery, gloom, despair, hell ! 
Should any people hesitate to adopt this measure 
when it concerns only a class, absolutely unfit, 
upon whom it works no hardship whatever, 
while an unspeakable amount of benefit is at once 
conferred upon the eligible and upon all people? 

ARE THE JUNGLES CALLING HIM 
BACK? — In his great lecture on "Rape" at the 
Citronelle, Alabama Chautauqua, ex-Governor 
Vardaman, in his dramatic voice cried: "The 
jungle is calling him back, the jungle is calling 
him back!" 

Now, any one who has lived among the Afri- 
cans in their native country can testify to the fact 
that sexual purity is one of the finest character- 
istics of the race. The writer in the book, "The 
Colored American from Slavery to Honorable 
Citizenship," says: 

"Among the heathen Africans, whatever else 
may be said about them, the world will have to 
admit that they are the purest people, outside of 
polygamy, in their connubial and virgin morals, 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 197 

upon the face of the globe. White women to 
my personal knowledge, hundreds of miles inte- 
riorward in Africa, can remain in their midst and 
teach school for years without being insulted, 
which proves to a demonstration that where our 
natures have not been distorted and abnormal- 
ized we are the most honorable custodians of fe- 
male virtue now under Heaven. 

"It is not the nature of the black man to out- 
rage white women, unless it is one of our Ameri- 
can retrogessive abnormalities, which has possi- 
bly grown out of the degradation entailed upon 
us by the singular prejudice and degrading con- 
ditions under which we exist. The whole range of 
West India Islands show by their records that 
only one rape has been charged upon a black 
man since 1832, and that occurred twenty years 
ago, while eleven rapes were charged upon white 
men, nine of which were perpetrated upon black 
women and two upon white w^omen." 

Then the writer touches, in a short paragraph, 
upon the same causes to which we attribute the 
deplorable state of affairs we find in these states 
— 'Tt may, however, be due to the fact that there 
the laws and institutions recognize the black man 
as a full-fledged citizen and gentleman, and his 
pride of character and sense of dignity are not 
degraded, and self-respect imparts a higher 
prompting and gentlemanly bearing to his man- 



198 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



hood, and makes him a better citizen and inspires 
him with more gallantry and nobler principles. 
For like begets like." Then he goes on to say: 
"While, in this country, we are degraded by the 
public press, degraded by the courts of the coun- 
try from the United States Supreme Court down, 
degraded on the railroads after purchasing first 
class tickets, degraded at the hotels and barber 
shops, degraded in many states at the ballot-box, 
degraded in some of the large cities by being 
compelled to rent houses in the alleys and the 
most disreputable streets. Thus we are degraded 
in so many respects that all the starch of respec- 
tability is taken out of the manhood of millions 
of our people, and as degradation begets degra- 
dation, it is very possible that in many instances 
we are guilty of doing a series of infamous things 
that we would not be guilty of if our environ- 
ments were different." 

Abnormal characters of both races, born under 
the"South's policy." will necessarily come under 
the law of restraint, even should this "policy" be 
abolished when the oligarchy of these states re- 
ceives its final sentence of political death by the 
people. But we predict that it would not take 
longer than a few generations before all the taint 
of this cursed "policy" would have vanished 
among the colored people. The nature of these 
people is so pliable that a "right policy" will 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 199 

effect them as favorably as a wrong one has ef- 
fected them unfavorably. 

The Negro man is by nature a gentleman, 
using that word in its true sense, and the colored 
man of African descent will prove himself a gen- 
tleman if environments will give him half a 
gentleman's chance. 



200 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



CHAPTER IX 

THE TEMPERAMENTS 

THE MENTAL TEMPERAMENT.— 

The Mental Temperament has its constitutional 
basis in the brain and nervous system. Its pre- 
dominance in the organization is due to inherit- 
ance, and if moderately inclined to be prominent 
at birth, it may be strengthened by training and 
culture, so that its place may become primary in 
the life of the individual thus born. It is char- 
acterized by a body comparatively slight, and a 
head that is large in proportion to the frame that 
supports it. The face is oval and forehead large 
and broad in the upper part. The physiognomy 
is delicately molded if not sharply drawn, and 
the countenance is prominent and expressive, the 
skull delicate and thin and the hair fine and soft, 
llie body is not strongly marked as in the Motive 
Temperament; the muscles are small and com- 
pact, being adapted to rapid actions rather than 
to great strength. In short, the whole system is 
high-strung. 

We believe that we meet with no contradiction 
when we say that the Mental Temperament is 
almost an unknown quality among the native 
African Negroes. There may be a few excep- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 201 

tions ; if there are, we have not found them. We 
have met with many cases of the Vital-Mental 




Tf)& TI)feeTeTY}pe/arT)ei)ts 

TEMFERAIMENT is a condition of the mind. When certain 
brain organs, through which the mental facukies of the mind act, 
predominate, then we have, what we call, either a Mental, Motive 
or Vital Temperament. We illustrate this in the above drawing, 
where the three localities of the Temperaments are shown. When 
all three are equally developed we have a Harmonious Tempera- 
ment. When two predominate we have, for instance, the Mental- 
Motive, the Motive-Vital or the Vital-Mental Temperament, 
These facts must be borne in mind in connection with the follow- 
ing portraits of the Temperaments : 



202 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



Temperament, even among the decidedly dark, 
but none that approached the purely mental, 
save in those who were of pronounced Caucasian 
blood, like Prof. Atkins, Olivia D. Washington 




Mental Temperament. Colored Caucasian. 
Second wife of Booker T. Washington, de- 
ceased. 

and others. Phillis Wheatly, and others of her 
type may have represented the purely mental. 
When this Temperament predominates, and 
there is a good degree of vitality to sustain it, 
the person may exhibit remarkable capabilities. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



203 



for the reason that the very nature of this Tem- 
perament indicates a special activity of the 
mental faculties through the large, refined, culti- 
vated brain organs. When the upper or coronal 




INS 



Mental Temperament, Colored Caucasian. 
Fine scholar and instructor. 

organs of the brain are largely developed and 
those of the base of the brain but moderately so, 
the tastes and delicacy of feelings, and refinement 
of manners, of such persons, may easily be dis- 
tinguished from all others. Such are rarely 
found among the criminal class, and when they 



•204 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

are they owe their degradation to the most ter- 
rible adverse circumstances. Persons of this 
Temperament may be found in sedentary occu- 
pations which require more brain than bodily 
exercise. Teachers, artists, authors, and the var- 
ious other professions which require brain-work 
are filled by them. Women who have this Tem- 
perament lack plumpness and the delicately 
rounded, symmetrical figure, so much admired by 
men in women, yet they have a beauty of delicacy 
and refinement that charms and attracts all men 
of a robust, rough, vigorous constitution. This 
is well illustrated in Dr. and Mrs. Sumner, chap- 
ter seventeen. It is apparent that this class of 
white women are on the increase in this country, 
and while they are charming, intellectual com- 
panions, they can, under most maternal circum- 
stances, not become the mothers of fine, vigorous, 
healthy children. Only by scientific crossing 
with robust constitutions, in which the Vital 
Temperament predominates, can they become a 
blessing to posterity and true wives and mothers. 
And the same fact holds true in the case of Ro- 
land, Ph.D., whom we illustrate and describe 
in chapter sixteen. In connection with the illus- 
trations here given we have named these ex- 
amples, as they fully convey our idea of the Men- 
tal Temperament in whites, and how, by scien- 
tific intermarriage, these top-heavy conditions 



OR THE FADING LEOPARDS SPOTS 



205 



may be beautifully modified in their progeny, if 
it is so desired. 

THE VITAL TEMPERAMENT.— The 
Vital Temperament has its constitutional basis 
in the nutritive system, that is in the organs of 






^mx^^^^^'^s^ 




Dr. Joseph C.Price 



Vital Temperament, Afro- American. Great ed- 
ucator and noted orator. 

digestion, respiration and circulation. The 
stature is generally above the medium, and the 
chest is full, the abdomen rounded, the limbs 
plump and tapering, and the hands and feet rela- 
tively small, while the neck is comparatively 



206 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

short and thick and the shoulders broad and 
round. The head and face correspond with the 
other parts of the body, in that both are well 
filled out with adipose tissue, while the expres- 
sion is cheerful, frank and happy. 

In the Vital Temperament we often find rep- 
resented the mulatto and other fairer breeds as 
well as the dark and full-blood Negro. In those 
of a fair color we may sometimes find eyes of 
gray-blue or brown color and hair of brown or 
red tinge, but the darker or black generally have 
the close, kinky hair and black eyes. In the dark 
or black, bilious elements enter that confer more 
physical endurance than is possessed by the fairer 
ones, or the sanguine type of the Vital; but the 
latter class, however, possess more activity and 
sprightliness, and consequently are the moving 
spirits in the American Negro race — those who 
have the most push, the ability to push, and push 
the hardest. If we compare them with the full- 
blood Caucasian, they are found to possess, for 
the most part, more endurance; and if their san- 
itary conditions and mode of life were improved, 
they would be decidedly so. There is no race 
of people on earth that can adapt themselves to 
and stand as varied a condition of life as the Af- 
rican Negro and his descendants of mixed blood. 
The absolute squalor and disregard for all rules 
of health and moral stimulation in many homes 



OR THE FADLXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



207 



of the poor southern Negro, would undermine 
and exterminate our Caucasian race; yet the 
breeding capacity of these people is tremendous, 
and were it not for the deplorable condition of 
life among them, that is the cause of removing 
so many thousands annually by consumption and 
other diseases, they would ultimately take the 
entire South by sheer numbers. Whether they 
will or not is yet an open question. 

The Vital Temperament seems to predominate 
111 the race, therefore it is the strongest, though 
not the longest lived people, whose descendants 
will, without doubt, be numerous throughout this 
world when the white-skinned people' have be- 
come extinct. We find in a book called, ''Self- 
Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology," by 
the well known authorities, O. S. and L. N. 
Fowler, revised by the not less famous Nelson 
Sizer, the following statement: ''All black an- 
imals are powerful, of which the bear, Morgan 
horse, black snake, etc., furnish examples. So 
black fruits, as blackberry, black raspberry, 
whortle berry, black Tartarian cherry, etc., are 
highly flavored and full of rich juices. So'also 
the dark races, as Indians and Africans are 
strong, muscular, and very tough." 

The Vital Temperament is most common 
among the colored women, while among the 
white American females the Mental Tempera- 



208 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




MotWe. " < Balai7ced. 

TEMPERAMENTS. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 200 

ment is fast displacing it, and consequently is 
disqualifying them as breeders of a superior pos- 
terity. Excessive mental training saps the con,- 
stitution of its sacred, magnetic, feminine quali- 
ties, and leaves the subject in a cold, reasoning 
atmosphere, instead of in the warm, attractive, 
magnetic fcminality. No truly superior man of 
ability looks for an encyclopedia, a library or 
bookstore, in the brain of a woman, when looking 
for the mother of his future children. The 
woman of today who is so top-heavy or exces- 
sively loaded with these things, that it over- 
shadows and shrivels her fcminality, or genera- 
tive functions, is not the fit mother of a superior 
race. Education in women is not only desirable 
but necessary, even if only for congenial compan- 
ionship to her husband, but if it robs her of the 
sexual or animal qualities necessary for the per- 
petuation and improvement of the human race, 
then it were better if she remained illiterate and 
thereby fulfilled her mission and be blessed by 
succeeding generations. Excessive mental de- 
velopment also retards marriage, and often the 
best years of a woman's bearing period slips by 
before she enters the state of motherhood. 
Negro and colored Caucasian women of the 
Vital Temperament ripen young, marry young, 
and leave ofif bearing younger than those of a 
Mental or Motive Temperament. They of the 

14 



210 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Vital Temperament are very passionate, both 
men and women, but changeable in mood ; lively, 
cheerful, amiable, frank, and candid, fond of 
good living; play and sport; and at the same time 
apt to fall into habits of eating and drinking that 
are injurious. Thus, with strong social affections, 
they are more liable to irregularities in the way 
of frivolity and dissipation than persons of the 
Motive Temperament. When, however, the 
moral principles are developed to restrain or 
regulate their conduct, they generally lead very 
happy, useful lives, enjoying and promoting en- 
joyment. 

THE MOTIVE TEMPERAMENT.— The 
Motive Temperament has its constitutional basis 
in the bony and muscular system. We find it in 
some Negroes, but most generally leaning more 
or less toward the Vital. The Motive Temper- 
ament is the result of climatic and geographical 
conditions. W^e find it most fully represented in 
people of high or mountainous latitudes, but 
rarely met with in low, hot climates. All fight- 
ing races are good representatives of this Tem- 
perament; the North American Indian being an 
excellent example, as are also the various Euro- 
pean and some Asiatic races. But as we have 
just intimated, we find the Motive Temperament 
in the Negro — not the Roman nose and promi- 
nent features of the Caucasian or the Indian rep- 



OR THE FADING 1 '^OPARD'S SROTS 



211 




Motive Temperament. Colored Caucasian. Prominent Divine 
of the A. M. E. church. 



212 HOLM'S RACI-: ASSIMILATION 

resentatives; it being a class by itself, of which 
the Jap and Chinaman are akin. Should we 
select an army for a long, desperate and fierce 
conflict, we would invariably choose one from 
the Negro or Mongolian races, and our first 
choice would be the Negro. The Negro and 
Mongolian representatives have not the com- 
bative and other fighting qualifications as prom- 
inently developed as is found in some other races, 
but when thoroughly trained as soldiers, they 
have a toughness and tenacitv in battle that chal- 
lenges every other race of fighters in the world. 
The Jap has, we think, already demonstrated this 
scientific fact, and give the Negro training and a 
fair chance and he will do the same; and every 
race and clan, including the proud Anglo-Saxon, 
would stand aghast, bewildered and confounded, 
with open eve and mouth, like a suckling babe! 
Let the American Negro and colored Caucasian 
take better care of their health, refrain from all 
immoral, debilitating influences, lift up the 
moral standard of their women, and then, some 
day, they will be fully equipped to demonstrate 
their power, and reap laurels that will set upon 
their kinky-haired head with eternal glory and 
honor. The shambling, shiftless, snivelling be- 
ing of today may have within him the making of 
a man of tomorrow. It is all a matter of latent 
possibilities that count in the future of a race, 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 213 

and not the high-strung, overwrought capabili- 
ties of today that may break tomorrow, and fall 
to the ground exhausted. 

There is a height, a great height, that man can' 
reach if he will ; but if once reached he must, by 
the unalterable law of growth and decay, stub 
his toe on the pinnacle of fame, and fall back to 
mother earth from whence he rose. This is the 
way Nature maintains ee]uilibrium at whatever 
cost. The wonderful blending of the various 
branches of the Aryan race with itself and other 
races in America, produces results never hereto- 
fore attained in the history of man. America is 
the battle ground of the races. It is the place 
assigned by our all-wise Ruler to be the gathering 
place for all people, and the feeble cry raised 
against the amalgamation of the races is but the 
whine of past glory that dies hard. The Cau- 
casian race yet stands supreme. If this people^ 
who is destined to elevate all mankind, fears the 
inroad of foreign blood, it battles against its 
highest interests, casts a shadow of disapproval 
upon its path of unsurpassed triumphs, and tolls 
the bell of its own doom. Japan was a barbarous 
country not long since; today it demands the re- 
spect and cordial treatment of every nation, and 
woe to the one who gives it not. The Afro- 
American has the same constitutional qualities 
yet undeveloped, and to continue the enmity be- 



214 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




Ho9. Frt d &rwKJ^oujhss. 



Mulatto. Motive-Mental Temperament. 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 215 

tvveen the races indefinitely, would prove fatal 
to all. To insure the continued supremacy of 
the Caucasian in America, it is not only advis- 
able, but necessary, to absorb all the other races 
who have come here, even at the expense of the 
loss of pure blood thus incurred. A mixed race 
is the greatest race; none excepted. The Motive 
Temperament is characterized in the Caucasian 
by large bones, strong, hard muscles, prominent 
joints, and an angular figure; and the height is 
rather above the average. In the Negro the 
shoulders arc broad, the abdomen is moderately 
full,<he face oblong, the cheek bones rather high, 
the jaw large, the teeth strong, the features in 
general rugged, the nose large and broad, and 
very little superfluous adipose tissue is found in 
his face or body. The head is rather broad from 
ear to ear and high in the region of Firmness and 
Self-Esteem, while the forehead of the blackest 
is generally receding, and those of mixed breed 
mav be more or less prominently developed in 
the Receptive, Reflective and Cognative, above 
the average Negro of little foreign blood. 



216 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



CHAPTER X 

THE BRAIN AND THE MIND 

THE MAKING OF A PERFECT MAN. 
— Nature has paramount objects in the crossing 
of the various peoples and races of marked dis- 
similarities, physically and mentally. These 
objects are; first, to elevate the lower; second, 
to produce a finer, more symmetrical body; third, 
to produce a finer-grained, higher developed 
brain, through which the mental faculties of the 
omnipotent, omnipresent, omnitient Mind 
(God) can act more freely; and finally, to bring 
about equilibrium. 

Thomas Martin McWhinney, D. D., in "Rea- 
son and Revelation," published in 1886, touches 
upon this profound thought when he says: 
"Man's mission on earth is to find out the divine 
methods, and to bring himself into harmony with 
their administration. And if through indiffer- 
ence or stupidity he fails to find out God's or- 
dained means of development and glory, but 
substitutes those of his own foolish imagination, 
then, at best, he can only hope to be evolved into 
an imbecile or a monstrosity. The infinite Cre- 
ator's ideal man will never be forthcoming. * * 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



211 



He that would make life a grand success, death a 
triumphant victory, and heaven a glorious real- 
ity, must consent to the fact that his chief busi- 
ness on earth is, by persistent strivings, to bring 
himself into harmonv with the administration of 




From a drawing by the author many years ago. 

heaven's plan of bringing him out into full stature 
of a perfect man. God's method of making a 
symmetrical and perfect man ever was, is now, 
and we are led to believe, alwavs will be the 



same 



1? 



218 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

That any race of men can be "bred-up" men- 
tally and physically, as well as any domesticated 
animal, is self-evident. 

Go throughout the South today, where the 
promiscuous mixing of the Caucasian and Afri- 
can has taken place to such a bewildering extent, 
and you will soon see evidences of this fact; 
though by many of the black race it may be de- 
nied, and also by the white race, the Afro-Amer- 
ican family has thus been evolved into its present 
state, and the process is not yet finished. And 
the question cannot but occur to us at this time, 
that if henceforth this mixing would be legally 
and intelligently conducted, disrobing it of all 
the baseness attached thereto at the present time, 
a marvelous stride for human betterment would 
transpire, beyond our wildest computation. 

In the following pages we shall discuss in a 
plain, fearless manner, how better results may be 
attained in the crossing of the tsvo races, scientifi- 
cally conducted, displacing the illicit mixing in 
the dark and its concomitant evils. 

BRAIN AND MIND.— A certain noted 
physician of the North said some time ago, when 
discussing the Negro question, that the skull had 
nothing to do with the development of the mind; 
and that the heads of children could be shaped 
when young as desired without mental impair- 
ment. Now, this process of reasoning should be 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 219 

relegated to the past. It may seem plausible 
enough to those who believe that brain is just 
brain, as a city-bred man may look upon a bushel 
of potatoes as mere potatoes, without regard to 
variety or quality. We say in plain English that 
brain is more than mere matter. Quality is of 
more importance than quantity. For instance, the 
brain of Booker T. Washington is infinitelv finer 
in quality than the brain of Sam, whose like- 
ness appears in this book; yet the brain of Sam 
may weigh more than that of Washington. A 
simple comparison would be fine flour to coarse 
sawdust. Yet such educated colored men as Dr. 
H. Roger Williams, of Mobile, Alabama, have 
argued with the author that a wild savage in the 
jungles of Africa is as capable of mental develop- 
ment as any man of any race. The jungles have 
produced a few remarkable characters,we do not 
dispute, but we contend that it takes a certain 
amount of breeding-up, of at least several gen- 
erations, before a true quality and capability can 
be produced; and it is universally conceded by 
unbiased students of anthropology that if this 
breeding-up process is accompanied with a cer- 
tain amount of foreign blood of a superior and 
similar kind, the process Is more rapid and satis- 
factory. 

The brain contains at least forty-two known 
organs or centers, and the mind of as many fac- 



220 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ulties that act through them. Every one of these 
mind faculties acts only through the correspond- 
ing brain organ, and if this brain organ is small 
or undeveloped, the corresponding mind faculty 
can only act through i.t in a limited, imperfect 
manner; or, if certain brain organs do not exist, 
as is the case in lower animals, the corresponding 
mind faculties cannot manifest themselves at all. 
Take, for instance, the reasoning brain organs 
which are absent in lower animals, deprive them 
of the corresponding mind faculties which alone 
can reason. Mind is not matter, hence it (He) 
can only manifest itself through the organs of 
the material brain, such as is found in animal 
life. Now, if the shape of the head and the 
quality of the brain had nothing to do with the 
manifestation of the mind through it, all brains 
in man and animal, of the same weight, would 
receive the same amount of mentation. In other 
words, if brain organs did not exist, animals like 
the elephant, with plenty of brain, but only a 
limited number of brain centers, would be cap- 
able of as great intellectuality as man. It is a 
psychological fact that the mind (the united 
mental faculties) needs no development, and 
thinking of it, independent of the brain organs 
through which it acts, our conception of it 
(Him) is naught but perfect. The united mind 
elements, independent of the material, are omni- 



OR THE FAniNG LKOPARD'S SPOTS 221 

potent, omniscient, omnipresent —God ; but they 
have never manifcsteii themselves througli any 
material brain in a perfect manner, unless it was 
through the brain of the Christ, who is reputed 
to have been "God mam test in the llesh." We 
experience onlv imperfect manifestations of the 
mind in man at his best, \et we know of no phvs- 
ical organism as perfect as the human brain. 
Thr niinJ is t/tr sr,„/, t Iw Sfjul i.s life, nnJ lift' is 
Go./. 

Rb:sri;rs \\ni-.\ mi xtm. dissimi- 

LARl'riI-..s C ROSS. Wc present a drawing 
in this chapter, which is the con7+)ined profiles 
of three people, representing mother, son and 
father. The mother, a simple Xegress. who 
was once a slave in the household of the man 
who is the father of her son, is a sample of a 
common tvpe West African; and for that matter 
we do not consider the father a verv desirable 
white specimen. lie had a dominant, sensitive, 
cunning, jealous disposition, she had not. and 
consequently the crossing produced an admir- 
able, almost harriionious brain development in 
their progeny. 

Now, we have made this drawing of these 
people; first, to show in a definite manner that 
even the lowest type of the American Negro has 
in the past often produced fine results when 
crossed with a strong Caucasian of a Mental 



222 



HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 



Motive Temperament. Secondly, we also de- 
sire to show that the shape of the head, the thick- 
ness of the skull, and the fineness or quality of 
the brain, has everything to do with the develop- 
ment of the intellect. Had it not, Betsey would 




Results when Mental Dissimilarities cross. 

be just as capable of becoming a doctor of divin- 
ity as her son. Dr. Sumner. Had she been 
trained, mentally, from youth up, her thick re- 
ceding skull would have changed perceptably, 
directly in the upper portion of the forehead, 
and the brain organs through which Causality 



OR TFIE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



223 



and Comparison act, would have undergone a 
process of refining and growtli, as well as the 
other brain centers; but fifty years of incessant 
mental gymnastics would not have produced the 
results we see in her offspring bv Summerfield 
SKULL Ax\I) HRAIX GROWTH. We 
do not mean to convey the idea that a full- 
blooded African people of low order cannot 
progress, mentally. It is true, their skull is 
thick and of cast-iron (juality and hard to ex- 
pand, but It is a well known fact that the physi- 
cal body is constantly changing, that is, old tis- 
sues waste away and new ones take their place, 
and this process makes a perceptable skuli- 
growth possible, even in the short space of tAvo 
years, and consequently also the brain under- 
neath it. Had Betsey received mental training 
and married a Negro man of like training, their 
children would have been a decided improve- 
ment, mentally; and if such a process is con- 
tinued for several generations, their expansion 
of the skull, and the refinement of the entire or- 
ganism would cijual that of any other people 
who have gone through a similar process. Such 
a course must necessarily be pursued in some 
parts of Africa, but here nearly all Negroes have 
gone through a slight, and many through a full 
process of mental growth, or, more correctly, 
physical refinement; and as 6,000,000 are of 



224 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

pronounced Caucasian blood, and many are 
highly cultured, the only rational and ethical 
thing to do, and that the two races will finally 
be compelled to do, is to take each other by the 
hand and say: "Your blood flows in my veins, 
and my people are yours, and your people are 
mine- — 'United we stand, divided we fall.' " 

First, to produce a higher and better type of 
man; secondly, to infuse new blood into a top- 
heavy, depleted portion of the white American; 
and thirdly, to prevent future serious rupture 
between these related peoples, by instituting a 
tie that binds for time and eternity. 

You say this is irrational, unscientific, out- 
rageous! we say that it is not. The plain state- 
ments just made are based upon the unalterable, 
unchangeable natural laws of our Creator. We 
hold ourselves responsible for every statement 
we make, and we are prepared to back it all up 
with a multitude of undisputable facts; and 
truth must finally triumph over every falsehood. 
We have stated above that a slow process of 
mental development must necessarily take place 
in Africa, among the natives; yet we must not 
lose sight of the fact, as mentioned in the first 
chapter of this book, that foreign blood and in- 
fluence are reaching into the very heart of Africa, 
and will, within a very short time, revolutionize 
conditions there. We predict that fiftv years 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARDS SPOTS 225 

hence there will not be a naked savage roaming 
the jungles of Africa. A network of railroads 
will penetrate the darkest spot, and bring with 
it Caucasian civilization and industry, confirm- 
ing the plan of the ages that all people will be- 
come a united familv. 

CR A \ I. \ I. (\ PA (MTV OF tup: RACES. 
— It is not easy to procure the brains of the var- 
ious race branches for the purpose of weighing 
and comparing them. The following table has 
been published at various times, and is no doubt 
a true estimation of the cranial cavitv. Hun- 
dreds of skulls were collected of the various races 
and filled with dry sand, which is given as fol- 
lows in cubic inches. 

'^^^^'S- Cubic Inches. 

^^^'cdc^ . . loo.oo 

Anglo-Saxons c)f).(w> 

f^'""S ^^Q^ 

Anglo-Americans 94- ^o 

Esquimaux 86. -22 

North American Indian^ 84.00 

Native Africans 83.70 

Mexicans 81.70 

American Negroes 80.80 

Peruvians and Hottentots 75-30 

Australians 7'i.oo 

Gorilla, adult 34-50 

Idiot 22.57 

16 



226 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

WHAT INDICATES MENTAL POWER 

— The weight of the human brain varies from 
40 to 70 ounces; that of idiots from 12 to 36 
ounces. It appears that neither the absolute nor 
relative size of the cerebrum, but the amount of 
gray matter it contains, is the criterion of men- 
tal power. While a large cerebrum generally 
indicates the presence of more gray matter than 
a small one, yet it is ascertained that the gray 
substance depends upon the number, and depth 
of the convolutions of the brain and the deeper 
its fissures, the more abundant is this tissue. 
The gray matter of the brain seems to be the 
source of thought, or the physical substance 
through which the mind can generate thought, 
while the white substance is the reservoir of im- 
pressions. While quantity generally indicates 
power, quality is the absolute source of mental 
power, and as we say in this chapter under the 
heading. Brain and Mind, it takes a certain 
amount of cross-breeding and breeding-up to 
obtain the highest mental quality. Soft, fine 
hair, fine intellectual features, and a gen- 
eral physical refinement, invariably accompany 
mental power. ' 

THE SIZE OF THE HEAD.— We never 
rely on the size of the head as an indication of 
special mental capacity, unless we find quality 
along with size. When we have both quality 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 227 

and size, we have a certain indication of power, 
l^hough tape measurements taken around the 
head, from Eventuality to Parental Love, gives 
some idea of the size of the brain, tlie fact that 
some heads are round, others long, some low, and 
others iiigh. so modifies the measurements that 
tlicy do not convey any very correct idea of the 
actual quantity of the brain. 

The following measurements were given out 
some years ago by the Fowlers and others, and 
are generally considered as right: 

Incites to occipital Opcninit of car to 
Circumfcrcnrc of Adult weiRht in spine hclow Par- upcninR of ear 

head in Inches. pounds. ental I.ovc. over Firmness. 



If) 


100 





9 


19/2 


110 


101/2 


10 to 11 


20 


120 


WA 


11 to 12 


21 


130 


12 


12^ 


22 


150 


14 


UVi 


23 


175 


15 


IbVi 


24 


195 


15 


16 



Female heads are about half an inch to an 
inch smaller than the figures given above. Their 
weight is also considerably less. The heads of 
children are larger as compared with the weight 
of their body. 



228 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

CHAPTER XI 

DISSEMINATION AND ATTRACTION 

DISSIMILARITIES AFFILIATE FOR 
EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH.— The nat- 
ural law of dissemination was in operation when 
the African Negro w^as transported to American 
soil. Camille Flammarion, the eminent 
French astronomer, says, "Progress is an abso- 
lute, irresistable law." The law of progress and 
dissemination are identical. This same law we 
find in operation in all history, ever since dis- 
similarities existed. It is true, like attracts like. 
"Birds of a feather flock together;" yet all birds 
of the same species dififer, males from the fe- 
males. The author has often watched fowls in 
the selection of their favorite mates. He once 
obtained three high-bred, imported geese. The 
gander had been mated with one of the females 
for several years. He then obtained a native 
male and female, much smaller and inferior. 
The two ganders at once engaged in a fierce com- 
bat until they had to be separated to keep the 
native from killing the fullblood. As soon as 
separated the high-bred gander proceeded to 
court the native goose desperately. When the 
ganders were again put in the same pen the bat- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 229 

tie continued. The native gander had to be 
killed. The high-bred gander continued his 
love for the native goose, and entirely neglected 
the two beautiful females of his own breed. 
Does Nature make a mistake? We think not. 
The offspring of the two geese were larger than 
the female and hardier than the male. The na- 
tive cattle are now bred up in precisely the same 
manner throughout the South. 

All animals mix only with their kind. All 
races and tribes of men have, in the past, mixed 
with their kind more exclusively than with any 
other. In the environment of primitive man it 
could not be otherwise. There are yet obscure sav- 
age tribes in some parts of Africa and elsewhere, 
where it is not considered wrong and where no 
evil effects follow close family marriages. But 
in all such environments there is no advance- 
ment whatever. 

The dark races have as much right to mix 
with the white race as it has with the dark or 
black. Nature does not forbid such comming- 
ling of racial blood, because all blood of all 
races is alike. 

Bishop Alexander \A^alters well said in the 
conference on the status of the American Negro, 
held in New York in May, 1909: 

'Tn the scriptures we read that the man 
(Adam) called his wife's name Eve because she 



230 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

was the mother of all living (to live) . St. Paul, 
the eminent divine and philosopher, has declared 
that 'God hath made of one blood all the na- 
tions of men to dwell on all the face of the 
earth,' and the best authority on physiological 
subjects declare that there is not a particle of 
difference in human blood. And yet blood is 
one of the most varied substances in nature. In 
no two kinds of animals is it alike." 

As the blood of an African cannot be distin- 
guished from that of a Caucasian, it follows in 
the course of correct reasoning that both races 
have a common origin, as already inferred, that 
environment alone has caused the difference we 
observe today. And as Nature demands a dif- 
ference of physical and mental make-up in mar- 
ried persons, the mating of extreme opposites, as 
in the Hamitic and Japhetic, produces the great- 
est physical pleasure and mutual love between 
the sexes thus mated. This is the reason why 
offspring are possible between the colored and 
w^hite men and women when neither can produce 
with their own. 

In our inquiry we heard an intelligent colored 
woman say, who has a white husband: "Mix- 
ing is so sweet, how foolish both races are to try 
to deprive us of this God-given privilege." 

Dr. J. W. Bate says in his book, "Marriage 
Guide," "It may be safely affirmed that a dif- 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 231 

ference of physical temperament between mar- 
ried persons is conducive not only to mutual af- 
fection, but to fertility. Nature appears to de- 
sire marriages between different families and na- 
tions, because such crossings of the various races 
improve and invigorate the species. Humboldt 
and others have observed that tlic offspring of 
Europeans and Ethiopians are peculiarly robust 
and active. From numerous observations of a 
similar nature, he argues that the best mode of 
eradicating Iicreditary diseases, gout, scrofula, 
consumption, epilepsy, madness, etc., in their in- 
cipient stages, is by the commixture of the species 
in marriage; the mutual antagonism of physical 
elements thus blended preventing the transmis- 
sion of disease to the next generation. 

"The mental weakness of the European royal 
families, who have been for generations the pro- 
duct of marriages almost incestuous in the degree 
of consanguinity of parents, is strongly confirma- 
tory of the truth of these principles. Walker, 
in his admirable and interesting work "On In- 
termarriage," proves beyond the possibility of 
caval, that insanity, idiocy, and numerous phys- 
ical ailments occur four times above the average 
proportion in the offspring of "family mar- 
riages." \\'hen persisted in for some genera- 
tions the race usually becomes extinct. Nor is 
this confined to man alone — the rule extends 



232 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

from man downward through the whole realm 
of animated nature." 

It is astonishing, indeed, that the various 
races in America should make any serious at- 
tempt to "keep the races separate," when all 
must live side by side and mix in their every-day 
lives as one people. All breathe the same at- 
mosphere of liberty and all ought to enjoy it 
alike. It is here not a question of the obscure 
savage and the refined civilized. All forces 
here in operation now promote, and will con- 
tinue to promote, racial admixture. 

Savage tribes do not mix as readily as civil- 
ized with the savage. Nature's object in mixing 
is growth; where that cannot be obtained there 
is no commingling. The civilized have always 
mixed with and absorbed the savage, and this 
process will continue until all races have been 
elevated. 

We find men who will reason that the law of 
attraction, for the preservation of species is un- 
alterable, and must not be violated. That like 
must affiliate with like, at least as far as man is 
concerned. That we may "tinker" with plants 
and animals, and try to improve upon Nature, 
but that man must religiously adhere to his own 
race, clan or people, and refuse to mix or asso- 
ciate with any others on equal terms. This idea 
is founded upon the illusive belief that there is 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 233 

more than one species of man. Such reasoning 
is decidedly narrow, and betrays a lack of insight 
and investigation into Nature^s laws, and the hu- 
man family. Nature endeavors to maintain 
equilibrium throughout all her productions and 
functions. 

To illustrate, we will take history and say that 
we have three distinctly, separate peoples or 
races, who have no intercourse with each other, 
who even hate each other. One dwells in Af- 
rica, one in Europe and one in Asia. One is a 
low-cast, barbarous race, one semi-civilized, and 
the other is crammed with temples of learning, 
libraries, high culture, and is admirably civil- 
ized, as ancient civilizations go. Now, PRO- 
PORTION IS A PARAMOUNT NAT- 
URAL LAW. We find as we carefully follow 
the history of these three nations or races, that 
the barbarous is lifted up, the over-cultured 
pulled down, and that finally the semi-civilized 
raises its great, broad, bushy head and assimilates 
both and swells, grows and devours, until it be- 
comes a monstrosity, when in turn it, too, is ab- 
sorbed by others. Thus the process will con- 
tinue in the future history of man in spite of all 
reasoning to the contrary. 

Prof. O. S. Fowler said many years ago: 
"The acknowledged Anglo-Saxon superiority 
is directly traceable to the wholesale interming- 



234 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ling of the ancient Briton, Picts, Celts and Ro- 
mans, both with each other, and the Normans, 
Danes and others. We find in nearly every in- 
stance where nations are not thus crossed they 
are either stationary or on the decline; like 
Spain, Africa and Eastern nations. The influx 
of foreigners from all Europe, Asia and Africa, 
into our country, is indeed the most auspicious 
omen of future development and greatness." 

Nature does and can by the union of opposites, 
instead of similarities, efifect astonishing im- 
provements. And it is well known to up-to-date 
scientists that if dissimilarities did not exist; if 
there were no two dissimilar procreative attract- 
ing poles in the human family, there could be no 
evolutionary process, and consequently no hu- 
man advancement. 

THE LAW OF SPECIES.— The law of spe- 
cific procreative attraction exists for the perpet- 
uation of the various species of plant and ani- 
mal life. It is the law of species. The law of 
attraction, for the opposite sexual poles in repro- 
duction and growth, is a co-partner with the 
law of dissemination (scattering) in the econ- 
omy of life. The absence of either would cause 
a chaotic condition. With the law of procrea- 
tive attraction, for the reproduction of species, 
only in operation we would find all the thou- 
sands of separate plants and animals in so many 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 235 

separate localities on earth. For example, there 
would be thousands of acres of wheat in one part, 
separate from all others. We would find large 
wooded places; every species alone. Immense 
orchards of single varieties would cover millions 
of acres; and close by might be found thousands 
of acres of poisonous ivy, deathly nightshade, 
apple-fern and hundreds of other loathsome 
plants. Should a man by accident stray from his 
habitation and run into such a bewildering mass 
of poisonous growth, escape would be impos- 
sible. 

On the other hand, should he run across the 
several hundred miles of the snake habitation, he 
would be shocked out of his identity. Then, 
again, he might encounter an ant hill several 
miles high, containing all the ants on earth. Or 
he might run into the various animal territories, 
and escape under all circumstances would be al- 
most impossible. 

THE DIVINE PLAN OF MAN'S RE- 
DEMPTION, — The above arrangem_ent, on a 
small scale, would be an ideal paradise to dwell 
in. But the law of scattering drove man and 
animal out of the Garden of Eden, whatever and 
wherever that may have been, to populate the 
world. The law of fruitfulness was based upon 
the law of scattering, for without scattering there 
could be no multiplication and growth. Soil, 



23(i HOL.MS RACE ASSIMILATION 

food and climate, in various parts of the world, 
were instrumental in producing the various 
physical types, temperaments and colors of skin. 
Ham, Shem and Japhet were not black, yt-dlow 
and white; dissemination caused their posterity 
to gradually assume these types. 

We here touch upon a profound thought — 
viz., the Divine plan of man's redemption: 
First, the scattering, for the purpose of multi- 
plying and creating a variety of races; secondly, 
the gathering together of these races again into 
one family, for the purpose of final extinction. 

Continual inbreeding deteriorates, cross- 
breeding enhances; causes fruitfulness and 
growth. The savage African would remain a 
savage still, another thousand years or two, did 
he not sooner come in contact with other races. 
As a race he is in his second childhood, and 
cannot hope to rise independent of all foreign 
blood, and rule his people. 

The various branches of the Caucasian family 
in America are, even in this early day, threat- 
ened with race suicide. How long will it be be- 
fore scarcely one puny child will arrive in 
every white home in America? We have on 
record numerous cases where one or two weakly 
offspring would be born to a white man by his 
white wife, and ten bright, vigorous ones by a 
colored woman. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 237 

We wish our readers to hold the thought that 
mental and physical dissimilarities cross for 
evolutionary growth and fruitfulness. When all 
differences in the human family have disap- 
peared in extreme physical refinement, a general 
decline in population, and final extinction will 
ensue. Do our readers catch the thought we 
wish to convey? The time will come, and is 
comparatively near, when men will not worry 
about over-population, but a positive decline in 
our white population. The government then in 
control will advocate a scientific system of fruit- 
ful marriages, as a matter of self-preservation. 
It may then even invite the indomitable Jap and 
the darkest man in existence as our son-in-law. 

Races can no longer stand apart and advocate 
their integrity and live. A bewildering amount 
of mixing covers the entire past history, when 
there was no means of communication, how can 
now be prevented the final union of all the races, 
when commerce and traveling by land and water 
makes every race, clan and color our next door 
neighbor? We are coming to it fast — the final 
union of the children of Noah. 

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.— We are led 
to believe that there was a time in the history of 
this world, when plant and animal life was first 
introduced, when the law of dissemination was 
not yet in operation. If the Garden of Eden 



238 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

was governed without scattering influence, 
Adam had an ideal habitation. xMoses plainly 
speaks of the time in Gen. VI., ist to 9th verses, 
when the sons of Noah feared the law of scat- 
tering. These early people tried to resist the 
operation of this law, but it scattered them 
abroad on the earth, and caused them to even 
speak difTferent languages. This process was ab- 
solutely necessary in order to create dissimi- 
larities in the human family, essential to per- 
petuate the race. 

It is evident that had the race continued to 
live in the same place the ultimate plan of 
human growth would have been defeated, and 
man would have early become extinct. That 
an oak tree, for example, should spring up spon- 
taneously over the entire earth at the same time, 
without first a seed being planted, is beyond an 
ordinary mind to comprehend. It seems far 
more rational to believe that the first oak and 
man existed in a specific place, for a specific 
purpose, until the law of scattering became 
operative. 

WOULD EXPERIENCE A CALAMITY. 
— Should the law for the perpetuation of the 
species be dropped from the category of natural 
laws, and the law of dissemination alone remain 
in operation, this world would experience even 
a greater calamity than that just described. A 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



239 




The Lay/>^€>f Species forhidls 

Mixing. 

The new lot of chickens in his barnyard would quack like a 
duck yet not look like one, while a strange lot of ducks might 
cackle like hens and crow like cocks 



•J40 HOLM S RACE ASSIMILATION 

farmer would sow a certain kind of grain, but 
would invariably reap strange combinations of 
other grains and weeds he never knew or sowed 
before. The new lot of chickens in his barnyard 
would quack like a duck, yet not look like one, 
while a strange lot of ducks might cackle like 
hens and crow like cocks. Strange beings would 
be born, undreamed of monstrosities, living, 
crawling, creeping things, unnamed and un- 
nameable; beautiful, poetic, symmetrical dreams 
of perfection; winged and unwinged angels 
would fly and run swifter than the wind, then 
disappear to give rise to yet other beings, other 
freaks for still others to play with, until all 
would be a loathsome, unspeakable confusion. 
Man could not long survive. 

DISSEMINATION GROWING 
STRONGER.— We believe that the law of dis- 
semination is growing stronger and more active 
as the world grows older. We see evidences of 
this in the animal and vegetable world. Strange 
plants and animals have been distributed and 
successfully raised in many parts formerly un- 
known. And the same fact is true of man. 
Birds W'ho carry seeds of plants from one coun- 
try to another unconsciously obey this law, so 
also did the slavers who brought the Negro here 
and throughout the world. Phillis Wheatley, 
the inspired Negro girl poet, undoubtedly re- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 241 

ceived a true impression of this fact when she 
wrote : 

"'Twas mercy l)roiight me from my Pagan Land, 
Taught my benighted soul to understand 
That there's a God — that there's a Saviour too ; 
Once 1 redemption neither sought nor knew." 

In the workings of Almighty God there is no 
thread broken, save by erring man, in the great 
plan of human redemption — of the final reunion 
of all nations and races into one people, one gov- 
ernment, one tongue. The world is getting 
smaller rapidly. Every thinking man and 
woman knows that, at the present rate of prog- 
ress, the day will soon arrive when the entire 
map of the world will be changed. This will 
come about in a peaceful manner, accompanied 
by wonderful progress, or else war and extermi- 
nation will bring it about, just as man may will 
it in the final process of growth and decay. 

THERE IS A DIVINE PURPOSE IN 
MIXING. — In the mixing of the Negro and 
Caucasian in the South we see a divine purpose. 
Let us be frank with ourselves. Had this mix- 
ing not taken place to the extent it has, or not 
at all, what would today become of the pure- 
blood African in our midst? We expect a strong 
contradiction here, but the fact remains true; 
were it not for the millions of mixed blood, the 
hope in the heart of the pure-blooded black man 
would be faint indeed ; not because he is destitute 

16 



•242 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

of ability to rise, for he is not, but because of the 
evidence that would then exist that he belonged 
to another race of beings with which human 
bein<rs could not mix. We contend that the evi- 
dence of his extensive mixing with the white and 
other races, puts him in the front rank of future 
human progress, and on an equal footing with 
all people. Our friend, Rev. John H. White, 
D. D., (see Resume) is right when he says: 
"The Negro has always figured in the history of 
the world. His blood has entered stron8:lv into 
that of the dominant and conquering Roman, 
into the Latin races of Europe — France, Spain, 
Italy." 

Moses, the greatest lawgiver and moral re- 
former the w^orld has ever known, would not 
have married an Ethiopian woman, had that 
race then been considered of an inferior and un- 
mixablc kind, as it is considered in these States 
today, in spite of all mixing that is now taking 
place; and has there ever been more than now? 

IS OUTRAGEOUS, YET DIVINE.— This 
is outrageous! A divine purpose in the most 
glaring sin committed? If it is, then the im- 
mutable laws of God are outrageous, yet they are 
just. 

\\'hen a fierce storm sweeps over a portion of 
our country and leaves wreck and ruin, death 
and destruction in its path, the superstitious say 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 243 

it is the work of the devil, or the wrath of God, 
or a punishment of the wicked, while reason and 
science say that it is but a law of the elements 
and a necessary cleansing and readjusting pro- 
cess, designed by a Wise Ruler in the economy 
of the world, for the preservation of plant and 
animal life. Did not these disturbances occur 
over land and sea, stagnation and death would 
soon take place, and leave the earth a silent 
cemetery. 

Had not Frederick Douglass, Booker T. 
Washington and nearly all the other great men 
of the American Negro race been of mixed 
blood, this people and this world would be just 
that much worse off. The manner of their birth 
has been criticised and condemned, and no doubt 
justly in the light of modern ethics, but, never- 
theless, the law of dissemination or mixing was 
obeyed under adverse conditions, and the wrong 
here involved can only be laid at the door of 
human ignorance and depravity. 

Here again, as in the natural process of puri- 
fying the atmosphere as in the storm, poor 
humanity has been outwitted and a greater in- 
telligence has taken in hand the destiny of a 
people. All the man-made laws and adverse 
criticism cannot change the inevitable. Why 
should the moral heroism and the great intel- 
lectual illumination of this free age longer per- 



244 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

mit the inhuman procedure, discussed in this 
book, when the proper legislation would wash 
away this horrible stain, this unmitigated curse, 
and give to both races a moral tone, a Christian 
puritv, as behooves a civilized people. The fol- 
lowing analyses of the blending of the two races 
must convince all skeptical and prejudiced that 
legal amalgamation and the removing of preju- 
dice is the paramount race issue. 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARDS SPOTS 245 

CHAPTER XII 

RACE INTEGRITY 

THE RACE INTEGRITY CRANK — 

In every age of mankind the demand for race 
integrity was manifested among the various 
tribes and nations of the world; and among peo- 
ple the most barbarous and exclusive the demand 
has been most strenuous. In fact, the most bar- 
barous often pride themselves most on their race 
purity. Ignorance is invariably the father of 
race prejudice, and the source of belief in race 
integrity. And this absurd, childish proclivitv 
manifests itself in a peculiar manner, under 
peculiar circumstances, at the present time. We 
say absurd, childish— what else, think you, is it? 
The absolute inconsistency of many who cry the 
loudest for race integrity is abominable! ' We 
do not deny that illicit miscegenation prevails 
throughout the South among the lowest classes 
of the races; but when men of influence and 
social prominence everywhere step up to us and 
damn the entire "nigger race," and demand race 
integrity, while their pale-faced sons and daugh- 
ters and their dark-faced "concubines" (?) are 
fed and housed by them, this race integritv busi- 
ness becomes a very serious proposition. 



246 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

\Mien the modern Moses of America makes 
laws, forbidding the "children of Israel" to 
commingle with all other races, while he per- 
sistently sticks to his — black honey — Ethiopian 
wife, in spite of all the protests, arguments and 
prejudice of his brother Aaron and sister Marion, 
we think it is time we take a good, square look 
at this "sacred" race purity doctrine. What we 
say is not meant to reflect unkindly upon those 
w^ho very seriously believe in their own breed, 
and champion that particular kind of breed to 
w^hich they belong. They have that privilege — 
all men have that privilege. Most men believe 
that they are the only pure-bred animal on earth 
(the tree-climbing, cocoanut-headed pigmy be- 
lieves that), consequently they are extremely 
anxious to populate the world with their partic- 
ular "species," to the exclusion of all others. We 
have profound respect for this class of men and 
women, although they may be a little self-cen- 
tered, unreasonable. But, if we made it our 
business to hate any mortal being on earth, it 
would assuredly be the bold-faced hypocrite, the 
race integrity crank; the man with a "ga" at 

the end of Negro, and a "d " in front. Our 

country is at present infested with this kind of 
human monstrosity. 

THE MAN WHO TS NOT A NEGRO. 
" — We would not deny that some day, yet far dis- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 247 

tant, the presence of a pure-blooded Caucasian 
will be a rare curiosity in some sections of the 
Southland ; but the real Negro will also be con- 
spicuous for his absence. Indeed, as we assert 
in several parts of this book, the true Negro 
will, within a comparatively short time, be ex- 
tinct, unless recruited from Africa. 

While the amalgamating process is more 
noticeable in cities, there are many instances in 
rural districts where some white planters have 
their "mistresses." You may call the progeny of 
this class white Negroes, you may continue to 
call all people of African descent Negroes; but 
they are, nevertheless, as far removed from a 
Negro as an Irishman is from an Indian. On 
short notice a goodly crowd of this class of so- 
called Negroes, who are as white as many south- 
erners, may be picked up in most localities. Of 
course, if they prefer to call themselves Negroes 
to anything else, that is their business; scien- 
tifically speaking, we cannot class these with the 
Negro race, as they have lost their Negro char- 
acteristics to too marked an extent. Any man 
with more foreign blood than a mulatto is not a 
Negro, and the fact that he is called one, or calls 
himself one, is absurd. He could, with more 
propriety, be called a hybrid or mongrel, for he 
is nothing else. If anthropology teaches any 
truth, it must teach that a man of mixed blood 



-248 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

belongs to the race of nearest kin. Anything 
else is neither science nor justice, but prejudice. 

The scientific truth here conveyed is indis- 
putable: Can a man take a glass of wine, drink 
one-half of it, refill with water and then claim 
that it is wine, without telling a falsehood? But, 
you say, he may pass it for "thin wine." Very 
well. But suppose he again drinks one-half, and 
again refills the glass with water, and then swears 
that it is still wine? That man is a liar! 

Any man who claims to be a Negro, though it 
may be very respectable to be one, when he is 
not one ; any man who calls another man a Negro 
who is not one commits the same crime as does 
the man who calls water wine. It is a sin against 
the accepted law of evolution, and against the 
highest sense of justice to do so. Why do we 
put it this way? Because as long as a class of 
people of this kind call themselves Negroes, 
they will continue to be called "niggers," and 
will continue to live under the ban of a sham. A 
sham is a counterfeit, a counterfeit is but a 
shadow of the real thing. 

This diversion in our discourse is necessary 
here in order to make plain a few following 
facts : First, that the southern whites and others, 
who amalgamate with and are assimilated into a 
people just mentioned, will not leave the world 
any worse off for such a fusion. " Secondlv. that 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 249 

we fail to find in the average southerner any- 
thing that indicates the presence of a superior 
stock. There are the baser (so-called trash) class, 
the growing middle class and the top-heavy, 
superfine class. The baser class is considerably 
below the middle colored class — in many cases 
as low as the lowest Negro class. The superfine 
class is the ornamental, the aristocratic; while 
the middle class represents the real backbone of 
southern industry and stability — and this class 
is intermarrying with northern and other settlers 
very rapidly. 

WOULD ENCOURAGE INTERMAR- 
RIAGE. — The Wisconsin State Journal, com- 
menting upon our lamented Governor Johnson's 
speech some time ago, draws a true picture with 
regard to this fact, as northern people see it. It 
is as follows: "Gov. Johnson, of Minnesota, hit 
the nail pretty squarely on the head when in a 
recent speech in the South he explained how it 
was that the North had left the South so far be- 
hind in the march of material progress. The 
war devastated this country sadly, but the war 
was not the only cause for the long period of 
stagnation. Lack of hard work did much to re- 
tard the South's regeneration. Here people did 
not know how to turn to and work. If our peo- 
ple of the northwest had this region they would 
have put it on its feet again in a very few years," 



250 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

said he. "We have been accustomed to work. 
We had no servants to wait on us in the north- 
west. Our women folks, too, knew how to work. 
My wife did her own housework almost up to 
the time I became governor. She cooked the 
dinner for her guests and washed the dishes. It 
is these habits of industry that give life and 
strength to a nation, especially to a people in a 
crisis." The South has long realized the truth 
of the governor's statements. The southern habit 
of leaving to "niggers" the common work of the 
field and household has produced an enervated 
people lacking in initiative and self-reliance. 
Even now, it is northern capital and push that 
is bringing the South out of the lethargy imposed 
by the war. On the other hand, accustomed to 
doing their own work the people of the North, 
men and women alike, have developed a sturdier, 
more independent race. They built their cabins 
and cleared their lands themselves, thus adding 
steadily to the aggregate wealth of the section 
and producing at the same time brain and brawn 
to meet and overcome emergencies and be pre- 
pared to seize opportunities. We have heard 
it said by substantial, sensible men that they 
would prefer their daughters marrying indus- 
trious mulattoes to a class of the lank, shiftless, 
loose-jointed southerners. Not long since one of 
these tired, long-faced fellows, not by any means 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 251 

void of intelligence in a way, frankly admitted 
to us that his race had "well nigh run out," just 
as the native cattle in the backwoods; and the 
only hope he held out was the crossing of his 
children with foreign blood, like German or 
Scandinavian. 

NATURE ALWAYS ENDEAVORS TO 
PRODUCE HER BEST.— This is the scien- 
tific reason why so many of these men have af- 
filiated with the strong, Vital Temperament in 
the industrous Negro race; thus raising their 
progeny in a marked degree, in many instances. 
In parts of the South where foreigners have not 
yet settled to take up the industrial side of life, 
a great deal of the energy put forth is produced 
by this progeny. We know of instances where 
the planter's children, by his "mistress," are the 
main stay of the establishment. Of course, this 
fact is denied by the prejudiced. To admit this 
truth would amount to a confession, and over- 
throw the prevailing custom. To show you the 
established, narrow, prejudiced belief in this re- 
gard, we will quote a recognized authority of 
some note, D. G. Brinton. He says in his book, 
"Races and Peoples," published in 1890: "There 
can be no doubt but that any white mixed race 
is lower in the scale of intelligence than the pure 
white race. A white man entails indelible deg- 
radation on his descendants who takes in mar- 



252 HOLM'S RACK ASSIMILATION 

riage a woman of a darker race. * * * Still 
more to be deplored is the woman of a white 
race who unites herself with a man of a lower 
ethnic type. * * * That philanthropy is false, 
that religion is rotten, which would sanction a 
white ivoman enduring the embrace of a colored 

man." 

If Mr. Brinton had investigated, free from 
prejudice, the results of normal crossings of 
white and colored people, he would have ex- 
claimed with us: "Behold! what hath Nature 
wrought?" Supposing the white mixed race 
average lower in the accepted scales of accom- 
plishments (which is not true), what of it? 
Should that be the only grounds upon which to 
condemn commingling, or the lawful amalgama- 
tion of the races? Never. We must consider 
the whole man thus crossed, his physical appear- 
ance, his latent capabilities, his inherent tenacity, 
etc., before we can pass judgment upon this very 
important matter. 

To show you that this narrow, one-sided view 
is old — in this country as old as slavery itself — 
we will quote a writer in De Bows Commercial 
Magazine, published in 1866 in New Orleans. 
He said: "We think that every humane man, 
who will carefully examine the subject for him- 
self, will arrive at the same conclusion as the 
writer of these few suggestions and facts, viz.: 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 253 

that to encourage ainalgaination is to encourage 
commission of crime and cruelty, the increase of 
ignorance and misery, and to insure the destruc- 
tion of tu-o races in att^nupting to elevate one." 
If the writer refers to the kind of amalgamation 
which has corrupted both races in the South, 
the only kind known to the people, then we say 
this quotation contains considerable truth. This 
subject is so thoroughly treated elsewhere in this 
book, that we shall not discuss it further here. 

WAS NEVER TAKEN SERIOUSLY.— 
Such utterances, whether written or spoken, to- 
day or any other day, have never been taken very 
seriously by the people. The Hebrew history is, 
for instance, a very striking example. Among 
them commingling was forbidden by an un- 
written law, yet nearly all of their greatest men 
had Ethiopian and other foreign wives not of 
their race, Christ himself being of such extrac- 
tion. 

Some of us remember having read an abstract 
of Abraham Lincoln's speech, delivered on Sept. 
1 8th, 1858, during the debates between him and 
Douglass. Wade Hamton referred to this in the 
Forum for June, 1888. Mr. Lincoln said: 
"While at the hotel today an elderly gentleman 
called upon me to know whether I really was 
in favor of producing perfect equality between 
the Negroes and white people. * * * I will 



254 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

say, then, that T am not, nor ever have been, in 
favor of bringing about in any way the social 
and political equality of the white and black 
races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor 
of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of 
qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry 
with tihite people; and I will say, in addition 
to this, that there is a physical difference be- 
tween the white and black races which, I be- 
lieve, will forever forbid the two races living to- 
gether on terms of social and political equality.'^ 

We have just spoken of the "physical differ- 
ence" Mr. Lincoln referred to, and we venture 
to say that if he had taken pains to investigate, 
he would have found the dissimilarities quite as 
great in the Negro race of these states as be- 
tween the white and black races. When men, 
white and colored, speak about the races they 
generally forget that the existing relationship be- 
tween them in America, is closer than between 
any absolute unlike races. on earth. This applies 
to Cuba and South America as well. 

MILLIONS ARE NOT NEGROES.— 
When they say "Negro," they fail to consider 
justly the millions who are not Negroes — only 
in name. We do not doubt the sincerity of 
Abraham Lincoln. There were in that early day, 
among the abolitionists, persons who saw the evil 
of illicit mixing, and strongly advocated legal 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 255 

intermarriage. Mr. Lincoln not being an in- 
vestigator, although possessing a smattering of 
anthropology, was unfamiliar with the natural 
laws which govern the mixing of the human 
family; took the common stand of his race, be- 
lieved in the eternal superiority of his breed, and 
did not hesitate to say so. He was honest in his 
convictions; others were honest, then as now'. 

It is the "awful" dissimilarity between the 
Caucasian and Negro that is, by many people, 
considered an insurmountable obstacle in the 
way; yet this barrier has long since become sur- 
mountable. There are now only 4,000,000 de- 
cidedly dark and black people left in these states, 
while 6,000,000 or more range from the mulatto 
to pure white. This beautiful blending of the 
two races is a fascinating study to any one not 
blinded with the poison of race prejudice. The 
fact that the pure-blooded Negro invariably 
mixes with the mixed, is sufficient proof to any 
investigator that the real Negro will disappear 
in a very few generations. This will gradually 
lessen the physical differences between the races 
Mr. Lincoln referred to. And from overwhelm- 
ing evidences we see on every hand the white 
man does, naturally, not object to this striking 
difiference. It is not a natural antipathy between 
the black and white races that has created a re- 
pulsive feeling among many whites, but rather 



256 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




on [.'IN. \IVI' IT.\PPV 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 257 

the inborn prejudice and contempt for an unde- 
veloped people who once were slaves. Brinton 
fully shares this feeling when he said that "that 
philanthropy is false, that religion is rotten, 
which would sanction a white woman enduring 
the embrace of a colored man." No impartial, 
scientific man could say this. 

A WOMAN ENDURES A MAN'S EM- 
BRACE. — Many a white woman has endured 
the embrace of a white man whose embrace stung 
her like the fangs of a deathly serpent. Color 
has little to do with it — only love and the man. 

We have knowledge of a good, industrious 
woman, who became acquainted with and fell in 
love with a nice, respectable colored man in the 
North. They "promised each other," and were 
about to be married. Friends and relatives op- 
posed the match and broke it up. Later she 
married a white man who soon proved himself 
a drunken brute. Years of pain, disappointment 
and sorrow followed, as the wife of a drunkard, 
when finally her wretched home was entirely 
broken up, and herself and children were thrown 
upon a cold, friendless world. 

It is the embrace of a man, not a brute, that 
a woman, white or colored, "endures" — and such 
endurance brings to her the thrill of exquisite 
happiness, surpassed by every other emotion of 
her beinor. 

17 



Hoi::s R-\cz -\ssimil-\tiox 

We claim that philanthropy false, that religion 
a lie, that repudiates the voice of Almighty God 
in the law of our being, v .hoosing the af- 

finity of our soul, and the parmer of our natural 
life,' 

Go into 1 colored assemblage anywhere, and 
in nine cises out of ten. where conditions permit 
it, thz ; : . ^vn, tan and white colored women are 
mated to the dark and black men. and vice versa. 
It is as natural for some white women to "en- 
dure" the embrace of colored men, as it is for 
these fair and white colored women, who crave 
that endurance. Why do not all these prefer 
their own color in their mates? 

Answer: Because Xamre says no. 

Prof. O. S. Fowler, whom we consider an au- 
thority on this subject says in his book on Crea- 
tive and Sexual Science: 

^"So great is the power of love to unite two of 
eA-en op: g temperament, fuse those naturally 
uncongenial, amalgamate those acmally repel- 
lant. and harmonize e^'en civilized with savage." 

RACE IXTEGRI'n' NOTHING BUT A 
FAD. — It is not necessary to produce further 
ovei-^helming evidence in support of our i>osi- 
ti . : is clear to the unbiased reader that race 

integritv is nothiDg but a fad: that there is no 
race, of any consequence in the world, that can 
boast of absolute purity. All advanced Euro- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS io^' 

peans have a variety of complexions. Such pure- 
blooded people as the American Indian. Es- 
quimaux and some African and Asiatic tribes, are 
looked down upon with scorn by the mixed peo- 
ple of a higher order; and the same fact will re- 
main true here as long as the Negro is a factor 
in the Afro-American race. Any Negro who 
boasts of the purit}' of his blood in these states 
is his own greatest enemy, not because of the fact 
that he is pure, but because the anti-Negro senti- 
ment is thereby incensed. 

Rub in the fact that the American Negro, the 
Afro-American, the Colored Caucasian, is homo- 
geneous, related by an inseparable tie to the 
white race, and is bound to remain inseparable, 
and as sure as there is a wise, overruling Provi- 
dence, peaceful and happy relations will ensue. 

Agitate the "my race and your race" feeling, 
enlarge upon this dangerous and pernicious prac- 
tice of inborn hatred, and instead of a calm there 
will be a storm; instead of sunshine and song 
there will be darkness and despair; instead of 
love and happiness there will be pain and sorrow. 

As we reiterate in this book. Nature main- 
tains equilibrium throughout all her marv^elous 
works ; and does not recognize anv race of people 
on earth as her elect. If she did. such a people 
woold be compelled to remain intact from the 
inroad of all foreign blood. That would make 



260 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

it a distinct race; as distinct as the horse is from 
the ox, and amalgamation would be forbidden by 
Nature. 

There is but one race of people with many dis- 
similarities, necessary in the evolutionary process 
of human kind — and how marvelous to behold is 
this process at work! 

ONE RACE SAYS MAXIMO GOMEZ.— 
In closing this chapter we wish to present to the 
reader that memorable letter, written by Maximo 
Gomez, the great Cuban patriot, to Roman 
Blanco, the Spanish commander, when the same 
proposed a union of the revolutionary forces 
with the Spanish army, to drive out the Amer- 
ican invaders. 

"Senor: Your audacity in again offering terms 
of peace astonishes me, knowing as you do that 
Cuban and Spaniard can never again live peace- 
ably on Cuban soil. You represent on this con- 
tinent an old and bloodstained monarchy; we 
fight for American principles — that of Wash- 
ington and Bolivar. You say we belong to the 
same race, and you invite me to combat the for- 
eign invader, but you are again mistaken. There 
is no difference in blood and race. / believe there 
is only one race of humanity, and for me there 
are but good and wicked nations. Spain has 
been up to the present a wicked nation. The 
United States is endeavoring to fill toward Cuba 
the duty of humanity and civilization. 



OR THE FADING LEOBARD'S SPOTS 261 

"Among classes and races, from the savage In- 
dian to the cultured European, a man is only 
worthy of respect according to his humanity and 
noble sentiments. In this light I view nations. 
I have only admiration for the United States. I 
have written to President McKinley and general 
Miles, thanking them for American intervention 
in Cuba. 

"I do not see the danger to us from the United 
States to which you refer. If it should so hap- 
pen, then history will pronounce her judgment. 
For the present I have only to repeat that it is 
too late for co-operation between your army and 
mine. Su atento servidor, 

Maximo Gomez.'' 

RACE PRIDE IS A POLITICAL ISSUE 
SOUTH.— Collier's Weekly says : "Probably it 
would be impossible to prophesy a day more un- 
happy for this continent than the one in which 
the southern white should abate one iota of his 
race pride." Maximo Gomez, whose letter we 
quote above, perhaps expresses the feelings of 
the southern republics better on this question 
than any one else. While there is considerable 
individual race pride among the various classes 
in the southern republics, it has never ripened or 
formed into a political body or become a polit- 
ical issue as in the southern states. The southern 
politician realizes that to "abate one iota of his 



262 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

race pride" means political death. He is bound 
to keep up the race integrity cry for political 
reasons. And it has so far been comparatively 
easy to rub it into the blind intellect of an igno- 
rant populace and make it "a go." Even the 
black Negro (married to a yellow woman) has 
contracted the disease and now begins to set up 
a race integrity howl. If the Negro would be- 
long to the same political faith as the southern 
oligarchy, and be useful as a political boost, it 
would pat him on the back and call him a good 
brother and race integrity would never find its 
way into politics. 

The race integrity politician has filled the 
South with yellow babies, and is the parent of 
several millions of colored people, thousands of 
whom he has disfranchised, because the son is 
wiser than his father and will not yield to his 
political wishes — stay out of politics and let papa 
run things. 

The race pride of the South is rotten in the 
face of this fact! Its politics are rotten because 
of it. It is utterly degraded! 

Can a just God have mercy on a man who dis- 
franchises his own son and degrades his own 
sweet-faced daughter because their skin is dark? 
No calamity is too great for a people or a coun- 
try that tolerates such an outrage! 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 263 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE ANTI-AIISCEGENATION MOVEMENT 

EDITORIALS FROM PROxMINENT 
SOUTHERN PAPERS. — "Judge Harris 
Dickson, who was one of the leaders in a suc- 
cessful movement to give the city of Vicksburg 
a clean government after years of abuses, is now 
engaged with other men of equally high stand- 
ing in a well organized efifort to build up a more 
healthy demand for racial integrity; to prevent 
the practice of miscegenation and to punish 
offenders of both races who commit such crimes 
against decency. The Anti-Miscegenation 
League of Vicksburg is extending its sphere of 
influence over surrounding towns, and, as the 
need for some such work as the league has under- 
taken is very evident, the growth of the move- 
ment may well be expected to reach great pro- 
portions; not only in the southern states, which 
have statutes against intermarriage between 
the races, but also in the states of the North, 
which permit the marriage of whites with 
Negroes. In his speeches on the subject the Vicks- 
burg novelist, journalist and lawyer has used 
very plain language, and, indeed, the question is 
one for plain discussion among men, with little 



264 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

place for oratory or flowers of rhetoric. There 
are laws enough in the southern states to punish 
offenders against the rules of decency which 
should protect the country against amalgamation 
of the races, but there has not been heretofore 
any general awakening of the better elements in 
the white race to root out existing evils threaten- 
ing racial purity. One of the methods of the 
Anti-Miscegenation League to secure evidence 
against offenders is the distribution among its 
members, and others in sympathy with its ob- 
jects, of printed blanks to be filled in with the 
names, addresses and habits of persons coming 
under observation who practice such misde- 
meanors as the league hopes to prevent, and to 
punish. While this may be effective in a meas- 
ure, those who are leading the movement realize 
that the greatest good must be accomplished by 
appeals to the higher instincts of white men and 
by changing the current of their thoughts from 
self-gratification to race knowledge and the im- 
pulse of racial protection. When the thought- 
less have been made to seriously think, half of 
the battle will have been won for the maintenance 
of the integrity of the Caucasian tribes in Amer- 
ica." — Mobile Register. 

The following editorial comments by the New 
Orleans Times-Democrat show how the move- 
ment is taking hold and demanding attention 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 265 

elsewhere than in Mississippi: "At a mass 
meeting held last Tuesday night under the 
auspices of the Port Gibson, Miss., Law and 
Order League, emphatic resolutions denouncing 
miscegenation were adopted, and the members 
of the league pledged themselves to a vigorous 
crusade for the protection of race purity. Those 
who addressed the meeting discussed this dis- 
gusting evil in plain terms. No attempt was 
made to condone the faults of white men who 
are degrading themselves and their race by 
the practice. The attitude of the Mississippi 
leaguers is uncompromising. In attacking the 
vile offense they evidently intend to strike at 
w^hite offenders as well as black. Anti-mis- 
cegenation sentiment, instinct with right think- 
ing men and avomen everywhere, is at last find- 
ing voice. The written and spoken denuncia- 
tions of the crime against race have found 
prompt and universal response. The audible 
protest is rapidly increasing in volume. Race 
purity is no longer a theory, it has become an 
issue. Not long ago the citizens of St. Francis- 
ville. La., in mass meeting assembled, declared 
themselves for its suppression. A vigorous anti- 
miscegenation league has been organized at 
Vicksburg, and now at Port Gibson the standard 
of revolt has been raised against the intolerable 
condition which undeniably exists. Having at- 



266 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

tained the dignity of an issue, it can be no longer 
ignored in the present campaign nor by the 
Louisiana legislature soon to be elected. The 
secret influences which have strangled previous 
anti-miscegenation measures will find this work 
dangerous in the light of the present indignant 
sentiment of the decent white people of Louis- 
iana. No man, or any set of men in official posi- 
tion, will dare oppose an anti-miscegenation bill 
openly.* None can deny that the revolting prac- 
tice exists in Louisiana, or that it threatens, not 
alone untold damage to the living, but future 
disaster. The evil is repulsive enough as we see 
it today, but the logical consequence of its con- 
tinuance and tolerance must appall even those 
degraded by its practice. There is no defense for 
miscegenation, nor even a semblance of apology. 
The cancer has eaten its way to the surface. It 
is hard to speak plainly upon such a subject, but 
now that the manhood of the South has found 
courage to voice its views and attack the evil in 
open forum, there can be little doubt of the issue. 
Louisiana needs a law against miscegenation, 
with adequate and equal penalties for white and 
black violators. If every white voter of the 
state, who loves his home, regards the welfare 



*The reader will here observe that all such anti-niisccgcnation 
legislation is not designed to elevate l)ut further degrade the 
colored race. Legal intermarriage would stop all illicit mixing 
and elevate both races. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 267 

of his children and glories in the pure strain of 
his blood will take the field for the enactment 
and enforcement of a law to protect race purity 
and to enforce respect for common decency, the 
long step toward the preservation of a white 
Louisiana will be taken at the next regular ses- 
sion of the legislature. Once we secure the law, 
we shall undoubtedly find means for its enforce- 
ment.'' 

PROFESSOR HOLM WRITES HON. 
HARRIS DICKSON.— 

"Hon. Harris Dickson, 
Vicksburg, Miss. 

Dear Sir: — I have seen something in the 
papers concerning the Anti-Miscegenation move- 
ment which you and others represent. As a 
scientist and investigator, I feel a deep interest 
in this, and would thank you very much if you 
would let me know what is being done to check 
illicit miscegenation in the South. If you have 
any literature on the subject that would help to 
enlighten me, I would feel grateful to you for 
sending it to me or for informing me where I 
might obtain it. 

"Wishing you the best of success in your en- 
deavor to bring about better conditions, I am 

Very truly, 

John J. Holm." 



268 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

HONORABLE HARRIS DICKSON 
ANSWERS.— 

"Prof. John J. Holm, 
C , Ala. 

Dear Sir: — I have your letter of the 12th inst., 
inquiring about the Anti-Miscegenation move- 
ment. 

"Like yourself, I feel a deep interest in this 
matter, and have been somewhat active in stir- 
ring up public sentiment on the subject. Sev- 
eral public meetings were held here in Vicks- 
burg, and a league formed for the purpose of 
gathering information and instituting prosecu- 
tions. We have thought it best, however, to 
make haste slowly, and build up such a resent- 
ment against this practice as will find expression 
in the jury boxes. 

"I am enclosing you herewith blanks for sig- 
natures of the members; also what is known as 
an 'information blank.' These information 
blanks were sent out to all who signed the mem- 
bership blanks, with the idea of gathering in- 
formation from every quarter which can be used. 
While this has met with some success, it has not 
been as thorough and complete as I should have 
liked to see it. It has, though, had the efTfect of 
breaking up numbers of cases which were very 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 269 

flagrant, the people evidently fearing prosecu- 
tion. 

"My own opinion is that it will take years of 
agitation before our people can be aroused to 
treat seriously a condition which has been re- 
garded as somewhat a matter of course amongst 
the lowest class of whites. 

"I shall be very glad to give you in the future 
any possible information on the subject. 

Very truly, 

Harris Dickson." 

MEMBERSHIP IN THE ANTI-MIS- 
CEGENATION LEAGUE.--It being cur- 
rent rumor in Vicksburg and Warren county 
that certain degraded white men are living 
notoriously in illicit relationship with Negro 
women to the debasement of both races and the 
outrage of common decency; 

"And it being my firm belief that if such in- 
famous practice exists that it should be stamped 
out by punishing the guilty ones according to 
law and exposing them to that universal con- 
tempt which they deserve, 

"I, therefore, agree to become a member of 
the Anti-Miscegenation League and to furnish 
the Executive Committee thereof with such in- 
formation as I may now have, or which by rea- 
sonable inquiry I may hereafter obtain. 



270 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

"And I further pledge myself to do everything 
in my power to arouse public sentiment so that 
the laws prohibiting this revolting crime may 
be rigidly enforced." 



Name. 



Post Office Address. 



INFORMATION BLANK 

Fill out as best you can, and wherever possible insert the names of 

witnesses who will swear to each fact. Then mail promptly to 

Executive Committee, Lock Box 164, Vicksburg, Miss. 

Name of man • • 

Name of woman 

Age, personal appearance and color of woman 

Age of man 

Exact location of house • • • • • 

Neighbors on either side and opposite. Particularly the 
women 



Where do they buy groceries 

Does woman buy on man' s credit 

Who deHvers milk Bread 

Groceries 

Where was the furniture bought 

Who paid for it 

Have they ever lived together in any other house 
When does the man enter and leave the house. • 



Does any other man visit the house so frequently. 

Who owns the house. 

Who pays the rent 

How many rooms in the house. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 271 

INFORMATION BLANK— Continued 



Exact number and location of beds. 

Have they ever been seen in bed together 

By whom 

Have they ever been seen undressed together. 

Do they take their meals together 

What is their manner and behavior towards each other. 



What other means of support has the woman . . • 

Has the man any other home 

In whose employ is the man 

Has the woman any children Their color 

\Vhom do they resemble 

How does the man treat the children 

Has he ever acknowledged them • ■ • 

Does the woman boast of him as her man" 

Docs she say they are his children 

Have the parties e\er been arrested for this offense. 

Who were the witnesses 

What became of the case 

Has the woman e\ er been arrested for any other offense 

Who paid her fine 

Who went her bond 



PROFESSOR HOLM ANSWERS DICK- 
SON, DEFENDING HIS POSITION — 

''Hon. Harris Dickson, 
Vicksburg, Miss. 

Dear Sir: — I thank you very much for the in- 
formation you have so kindly given me on the 
Anti-Miscegenation movement, and especially 
for your proflfered assistance in the future 

I must beg you to have a little patience with 



272 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

me in this letter, as I propose to go somewhat 
into this very perplexing question with you. 

First, I must tell you that I am a Wisconsin 
reared man, and have studied the Negro in that 
section; then coming South, some years ago, I 
have spent a small fortune and considerable time 
in study and research along scientific lines in 
various sections of the South, covering every 
phase of the Negro question. The result of my 
work, if Providence permits, will appear in book 
form in due time; and should our people of the 
Southland reject to inaugurate the reforms we 
advocate, I am, with many thinking men and 
women of both races, nevertheless, persuaded 
that it would be a rational and scientific solution 
of the race question. 

How far you and I agree is hard to determine 
at present, but in essentials we are bound to agree. 

Facts, you know, are such stubborn things, 
and you and I, and all of us, North and South, 
who run against them must heed them. 

You are indeed right when you say that 'We 
have thought it best to make haste slowly.' I 
agree with you that it will take years to arouse 
the southern people, to treat seriously this de- 
plorable state of afifairs; and, to be frank with 
you,' I must say that from scientific observations, 
I have become firmly convinced that conditions 
are bound to become worse instead of better, in 
this regard, under the existing social order. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 273 

T am not a pessimist by any means, but I be- 
lieve that it is easier and more practicable to 
tunnel a mountain in the construction of a rail- 
road than to go by detour a thousand miles. 

In short, I am convinced that laws must be 
enacted that will conform to the laws of Nature, 
and then be rigidly applied to this glaring social 
evil between the races. 

Unscientific agitation creates discord and 
enmity, and God knows too much of that kind of 
crime has already been committed by the Amer- 
ican people. 

OFFSPRING MUST CONSTITUTE 
LEGAL MARRIAGE.— First, and above all, 
we (the southern states), must have a law that 
offspring, under all circumstances, will consti- 
tute a legal marriage. What could be done under 
such a law, which is based upon natural prin- 
ciples, is easy to determine. 

Under such a law all white men throughout 
this wide country who have a white wife and 
children, and who are besides maintaining one 
or more families by Negro women, can be pros- 
ecuted for bigamy and be punished accordingly, 
besides being rendered sterile through the opera- 
tion of another law, which should provide this 
measure for all Negro and white criminals who 
commit certain social and other crimes against 
society. 

19 



274 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

THOSE WHO LIVE TOGETHER 
MUST MARRY. — Secondly, another law 
should provide for the legal union of all white 
men and women with Negro men and women, 
with whom they are determined to live. They 
should be compelled to marry instead of being 
forced to separate. No MAN OR STATE ON 
God's Green Earth Has a Moral Right to 
Separate a Family. 

In fact, by a higher natural law these cannot 
be compelled to separate. It would be an un- 
pardonable crime against Nature's God. 'What 
God hath joined let no man put asunder.' 

No haphazard, unscientific attempt at reform 
can be made along this line, without aggravating 
this social cancer and thereby creating a far 
worse condition. That the Caucasian race 
would be threatened with extinction, or that any 
serious complication would arise, if legal unions 
of this kind were enforced, is all nonsense. 

Why not make lawful that which is sanctioned 
by Nature? 

If Wisconsin, for instance, had a Negro pop- 
ulation of 300,000 instead of 5,000, the laws there 
in operation would prove just as effective in this 
regard, and no evil would ensue. 

The laws, or rather lack of laws, in this re- 
spect, gives the unscrupulous whites and blacks 
in the South a free license to commit this social 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 275 

crime, while the Negro girls of culture, as well 
as the lowest of the race, are rendered absolute- 
ly unprotected. 

And when we. consider this, is it any wonder 
that the Negro race is not morally progressing 
more rapidly, when the devil of lust in both 
laces of the South is in relentless pursuit of every 
atom of virginity in it? 

It makes every drop of my Teutonic blood 
boil when I see these innocent, sweet-faced 
creatures led, as it were, to the slaughter, by the 
men of both races! 

My Dear Sir, I beg your pardon, but I am in 
earnest. I wish to call your attention to another 
matter, which may be considered the reverse of 
what I have just said. 

SOME WHITES ARE UNDULY AT- 
TRACTED AMATORIALLY.— In my in- 
vestigations I have come across white men and 
women. North and South, who are unduly at- 
tracted, amatorially, to certain members of the 
Negro race. I could give scientific reasons for 
this natural attraction. That these should be 
classed among the "lowest whites" is an injustice 
that should find no lodgment in the minds of 
true, free Americans, who are supposed to be en- 
dowed by their Creator with inalienable rights 
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and 
advocate the same for their fellow man. 



276 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




I-(tRl!IDDEN FRUIT. 



"The claim for natural antipathy between the races is not well 
founded." — Professor IVilliam Pickens. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 277 

Speaking without race prejudice, as a scientist, 
I find that there is a fundamental cause, a divine 
designation, if you please, that promotes such at- 
traction, apart from the baser, mere animal grat- 
ifications. I have nearly always found these 
superbly adapted to those thus naturally at- 
tracted. We find paramount reasons for this in 
the natural law of dissemination or mixing. 

I know of white women who found their af- 
finity among and were married to colored men, 
who were as cultured and refined as the accom- 
plished Cora Marie Arnold, who became the 
bride of a Pueblo Indian chief in New Mexico 
who could not speak English; but I can here 
give you only examples of a few men out of many 
hundreds: Case No. i, a man, the son of one of 
Alabama's greatest doctors of divinity, who oc- 
cupies a very prominent and responsible posi- 
tion, is cultured, refined, educated. Has for 
years supported and lived with a colored woman. 
He loves her from all appearances, and has no 
white woman in marriage relation. He belongs 
to the old southern aristocratic stock. 

Case No. 2, a man of fine mental training, 
reared in the North, came South, was at the head 
of a school; married openly a cultured colored 
girl, and maintained her creditably, and in 
honest wedlock lived before the people of a large 
southern city in the far South. 



278 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

THERE IS PLENTY OF EVIDENCE.— 

Now, I am sure that if you are out for a thorough 
reformation, and a quick and rational solution 
of this complicated question, you will have 
plenty of evidence along this line at hand to con- 
vince you, as I have been, that we must do just 
the reverse of what has heretofore been at- 
tempted in ignorance, with prejudice and ven- 
geance for a guide, instead of reason and justice. 
I hope you will not misunderstand me. I have 
stated "my case" from personal observations long 
drawn out, and if you have any evidence to the 
contrary that may modify or change my view, I 
shall be more than glad to conform my belief to 
any newly discovered truth that will help to un- 
ravel the mystery of the race question. 

T thank you for your patience in the pursuance 
of this long epistle. I have written thus, because 
I feel that you are deeply interested in the mat- 
ters touched upon, and your judgment is of deep 
interest and value to me. 

Hoping to hear from you again, I remain. 

Respectfully yours, 

John James Holm." 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 279 



CHAPTER XIV 

SOCIAL VICE VERSUS LEGAL INTERMARRIAGE 

UNNATURAL CONDITIONS BE- 
TWEEN THE RACES THE CAUSE OF 
VICE. — We have found by careful investiga- 
tion that more than five children are born per 
annum, in every one thousand Negro popula- 
tion in the South, the progeny of a white parent. 
From the mayor and other influential men down 
to the common citizen are supporting and rear- 
ing families by colored women in one of the 
prominent cities of the Gulf, and in many other 
places similar conditions exist, yet the laws 
strictly forbid intermarriage with color. Many 
of the colored children of these white fathers 
are sent to the best white and Negro schools in 
the country, and are the best educated of any 
race. 

Ninety per cent of all the leaders of the race 
are the offspring of the Caucasian, yet intermar- 
riage is prohibited by law in many parts of the 
country. The white man has a free license, un- 
der these prevailing conditions to rob a colored 
girl, at will, of her virtue, and prepare her for 
connection with vice, corrupting her morals, be- 
coming the mother of crime and criminals such 



280 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

as a mob would delight to lynch and burn. We 
have seen the tears and heard the sobs of moth- 
ers, whose wayward daughters in short skirts 
had brought to their hearth white babies, and 
who are now the inmates of the red light dis- 
tricts, there to reach the lowest pit of shame and 
moral degradation. 

We contend that the colored woman DE- 
MANDS SEXUAL PROTECTION FOR 
HER DAUGHTERS. Legal intermarriage 
would strike the vital spot that curses both races 
in America. This book tells how and why. 

In the writer's former home in the far South a 
white woman was the mother of four colored 
children, and three colored girls became the 
mothers of white children in one year, in a 
Negro population of less than seven hundred. 
The Negro is not becoming more and more 
criminal every day, as ex-Governor Vardaman 
says; but the wrong conditions under which he 
has lived so long are becoming more and more 
acute each day. The time for a decided change 
is drawing near, no one can dispute this fact. 

IS SHOCKING, INDEED.— It must be 
apparent to all who have investigated and given 
any serious thought to the race question, that it 
would be a safeguard against immorality, and 
for the highest good of both whites and blacks, 
if equal sexual protection was extended to both 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 281 

races, and vigorously enforced in every section 
of the country. As long as the sexual relations 
with and among these people are ignored in a 
large section of thickly settled Negro popula- 
tion, it is practically impossible to infuse a bet- 
ter moral tone among them and the white men 
and women who are bent on mixing. In the 
congested quarters of some southern cities liber- 
tinism has become a vocation among them and 
the whites that must be appalling, even to the 
sophisticated. And that white women should 
brazenly set the debasing example in plying 
their unholy vocation, is shocking indeed! To 
illustrate, we will take but one case in a Gulf 
city from personal investigation. From their 
quarters in this city white women employ Negro 
men to go about the public square and solicit 
"trade," and to conduct men by carriages to the 
dens of infamy of these degraded white women. 
And this "business" is said to be under the city's 
authority! 

The statement of a prominent Chicago news- 
paper man that southern cities are more moral 
than northern cities is far from being true if one 
compares them size for size. In this way col- 
ored men and women have been brutally taught 
the lessons of vice, and as a consequence have a 
low opinion of all whites in this regard. South- 
ern cities have houses of illfame frequented by 



282 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



K- 



i' 






>t 



,*' 



^ 




WHEN PAPA IS AT HOME. 

Beautiful homes are found in which love and happiness reign 
supreme, presided over by sweet-faced ])rown women, whose children 
are fathered by white gentlemen of culture. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 283 

white men who are not only patronizing those of 
white women, but are degrading themselves with 
the foulest scum of Negro depravity; poisoning 
their bodies and damning their souls! 

There are certain men and women of both 
races who are bent on mixing — there is a natural 
law that seems to impel them to seek their affin- 
ity among a people not of their race. But in the 
South there is no hope of them living in true 
wedlock and respectability together. These are 
consequently encouraged to drop into the foul 
stream and land somewhere at the bottom. Do 
our readers catch the thought we wish to con- 
vey? A respectable white man and colored 
woman, or a colored man and white woman, 
cannot walk the streets of many southern cities 
together without being arrested and imprisoned. 
It does not matter whether the officers of the law 
are themselves supporting a colored woman and 
children; the law must be upheld and the color 
line observed. This crookedness is the cause of 
so much moral debauchery. Neither the white 
man nor the colored woman (saying nothing 
about the colored man and white w^oman) have 
the least encouragement to live a good moral 
life together; on the contrary the vials of hell 
and all the angels thereof are poured upon them, 
should they attempt to defy the existing custom 
of illicit mixing and proclaim themselves man 



284 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




Beautiful white children liorn to brown mother and full Cau- 
casian father in Alabama. The lower one has beautiful golden 
hair and .skv-I)luc eves. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 285 

and wife. There is no other place in the civil- 
ized world today, save in these United States, 
where intelligent men and women of two races 
are prohibited to enter the holy bond of matri- 
mony, and are thereby encouraged to live a life 
of shame together. In the southern republics 
there is not even such a vile prohibition. In 
fact, the Catholic Church has always exhibited 
a liberal spirit in this regard, and where she 
dominates a more intimate and natural relation 
exists between the races. This fact is evident 
in the rising republic, Brazil, in whose capital 
many of the wealthiest, most influential and aris- 
tocratic people have Negro blood in their veins. 
Even in New Orleans, Mobile and other cities 
where Catholics are strong, the races have suc- 
ceeded in mixing more naturally than in the 
more Protestant centers of the South. And not 
only this, there has been considerable less fric- 
tion between them where the Catholic religion 
has more closely united them, instead of divid- 
ing them, as is the case in Protestant denomina- 
tions. The Catholic Church is the only one we 
know of where both colors can worship together 
in the same building in the old slave states. 

THE ETHICAL SIDE MUST BE CON- 
SIDERED. — Solomon, the wise man of old, 
said, "To every thing there is a season." The 
men who run the political m.achinery in the 



286 . HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

South have passed laws prohibiting the mixing 
of the races, yet the mixing process has con- 
tinued, in some cases by the law makers as well 
as the people whom they serve. It has been 
found that such prohibition does not prohibit, 
but rather encourages and invites both races to 
degrade their morals. The most urgent need is 
a general reformation in both races. They have 
gone far enough, and the time has come, we be- 
lieve, when there ought to be brought about a 
reaction. The old relations have been tried and 
found wanting. Both races stand guilty before 
the ethical world ; the white more than the col- 
ored. It is a pity, indeed, if they do not feel 
a sense of shame! Now, let the right relations 
be tried. Let all whites and colored who affil- 
iate be brought under a special marriage pro- 
vision, and let the immoral features of the amal- 
gamation process be abolished. 

Our position is the true, ethical one, and will 
be universally conceded as right by all people of 
moral principles. 

FORBIDDEN FRUIT IS SWEETEST. 
— There is more true philosophy in this than ap- 
parent at first thought. Forbidden fruit is al- 
ways sweetest. Says the author, George Barr 
McCutcheon: * "Tell a young man that he shall 
not marry a young woman outside of a certain 
limited class or group, and he is less than hu- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 287 

man if he does not promptly fall in love with a 
girl who belongs to the forbidden multitude. 
And it is quite natural that a high spirited girl, 
who is elected by the laws of her royal or aris- 
tocratic station to marry a certain man, should 
find another man of a different station, far more 
attractive." 

While the American people, especially of the 
South, are sorely afflicted with colorphobia, the 
fact has never been disputed that the "colored 
fruit" is both sweet and pretty. We have often 
heard it said that all "niggers are alike," but we 
do not remember having heard that all Negroes 
are homely. The Creole, and other women of 
mixed blood in the South, are the prettiest in 
America. They may lose their beauty much 
younger than women of northern states, but 
while young they excel all others in vivacity and 
feminine magnetism. And there is a class of the 
black type with delicately shaped, small mouth, 
high narrow nose, large expressive black eyes 
and a mass of long, wavy black hair, who would 
be considered beautiful anywhere where a black 
skin is not a disgrace. Indeed, their black skin 
seems to heighten their beauty and enhance their 
charms. They have finely carved figures and 
are generally strong in body and well sexed. 

We believe that the dreaded time will come 
when many more respectable w^hite men will find 



288 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




A SWEET, DARK BRIDE. 
Now, let the right relations be tried. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 289 

their affinities among these women, and when 
such affiliations will be legalized and made re- 
spectable. And why not? The illicit mixing 
must be stopped. Is rendering this respectable 
a greater crime than the present commingling in 
the dark? It must be a depraved soul indeed 
who winks at the present illicit mixing, and af- 
firms it the only possible method to "keep the 
races separated." Will the South forever cling 
to the old, debasing traditions? If this be so, 
then it must finally be swept aside by a tidal wave 
of progress and a higher ethical standard, that 
will usher in a new order of things. 

ALL RACES MELTED TOGETHER 
HERE. — There are other times, other peoples 
and other conditions, as the world moves on into 
other ages. Lord Rosebery said in a speech be- 
fore the Philosophical Institution in Edin- 
burgh, Scotland, some time ago: "The United 
States is a great crucible in which the metals of 
every race and nation under the sun are being 
melted together. Will this result in the produc- 
tion of the perfect man of the future or in an 
entirely new^ type hitherto unknown to anthro- 
pologists, which will be the subject of study by 
the older races of the globe? We are in a quasi- 
paternal position to look forward to the develop- 
ment of the experiment with almost breathless 
expectancy." 

19 



290 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Who can tell? The amalgamation of the 
races in America may finally produce, scientifi- 
cally, a new race of men. It is up to the people 
of this country whether the Afro-American shall 
be included in the production of this new race 
of men by a legal intermarriage, or by illicit 
mixing. 

Those who believe that this mixing process 
will cease when the Negro has attained higher 
educational advantages, do not know the signs 
of the times. We fully demonstrate elsewhere 
in this work that the law of dissemination will 
continue to scatter the races of the world, and 
finally assimilate all. This little globe will soon 
prove too small to keep any certain class or race 
separate and distinct from all others And in 
these United States, where all classes and races 
have gathered, it is a gross folly to prohibit in- 
termarriage in any shape or form. Nature al- 
ways endeavors to produce her best. Let the 
state guard against the propagation of the crim- 
inal, imbecile, insane and idiot, which a wrong 
social condition has produced, and we shall soon 
evidence an all-round improvement. When the 
laws of man do not interfere w^ith the operation 
of Nature's laws, man will prosper in the pro- 
duction of better and higher types of physical 
and mental perfection in the crossing of the 
races. As an example, wc will say that if the 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 291 

white Negroes (those of very little Negro blood) 
were prohibited from mixing with the black 
Negro, as many believe they ought to be, 
Nature's method of dissemination would be de- 
feated, and rapid degeneracy would result 
among them. In nine cases out of ten, those of 
slight Negro taint are not physically adapted to 
each other in marriage. If they follow the voice 
or inclination of their inner nature, they invar- 
iably find their affinity among the intensely 
black. Nature prompts them to do so, and it 
is right. Their offspring are, in most cases, 
superior to either the black or yellow who pro- 
duce together. 

The Anglo-Saxon is not the product of a few 
generations, neither will the colored Caucasian 
be. The complete assimilation of various races 
consumes centuries. The black skin will not 
disappear as rapidly as some may suppose. In 
the melting together of the races, variety is the 
greatest charm; and the country which possesses 
such a variety today is indeed rich in future, 
possible development. Any country which can 
boast of but one race of people is in danger of 
retrogression. It is the melting together of var- 
ious races that insures future stamina and prog- 
ress. Germany is dying with cancer, France is 
facing sterility in her women. Of the 20,000,000 
people inhabiting Spain, only about thirty-five 



292 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

per cent can read and write; another two and 
one-half per cent of the population can read 
without being able to write, but the remaining 
sixty-two and one-half per cent are absolute ill- 
iterates. The Afro-American is assured of a 
greater future than the Spaniard, the French- 
man or the German at home. His blood will 
course through millions of people when the old 
races of Europe have long been absorbed by 
other rising races of foreign blood. 

We have made these foregoing remarks to 
show the reader that the future welfare of our 
country demands a general reformation of the 
sex-relations between the races. Nearly fifty 
years of unlawful cohabiting between the eman- 
cipated slave and dominant race has caused 
enough shame and misery to be forever rele- 
gated to the ignorance and licentiousness of the 

EVIDENCES OF FORTY-FIVE YEARS 
ILLICIT MIXING.— There are many people 
in the South who deny that mixing takes place 
to any extent, but all evidences point to the con- 
trary. We have made careful inquiry in many 
places. In a certain large city we found about 
one-fourth of the Negro population apparently 
full-blood, or at least dark; and one-half ranged 
from brown to a yellow, while one-fourth ranged 
from vellow to white. We found a large num- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 293 

ber of white men rearing families by colored 
women, from the most influential citizen down to 
the common resident. Some of these women lived 
in beautiful houses surrounded by wealth and 
luxury, their children receiving the best school- 
ing obtainable in leading white and Negro col- 
leges. We found these women true to their 
men, and kind, lovable mothers. On the other 
hand we saw the evil side of this process of mix- 
ing — hundreds of girls in their teens with white 
babies! At the close of the war, we were told, 
there were very few "bright mulattoes" in the 
city, the great bulk of Negro population being 
black. This, we believe, points strongly toward 
the fact that there must have been an unusual 
amount of illicit miscegenation since the war. 
Fifty years hence there will be no black Negroes, 
as far as this city is concerned, if the present rate 
of mixing continues. What is the use of deny- 
ing these things? The evidences of this deplor- 
able condition are met in every city, hamlet and 
cross road. 

We want legal intermarriages, not because we 
desire them, but because there is no other way 
out of the present deplorable condition. A judge, 
who presided over a municipal court in Georgia, 
believes that the man who mixes ought to be 
hung and the woman put in prison for life. 
Supposing the South undertook to establish 



294 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

such a barbarous law, would that prevent mis- 
cegenation? Never. When a doctor is called 
in to treat a sick man, if he is a wise, up-to-date 
physician, he will say: "I will assist Nature all 
1 can and let her run her course, and he will 
come out all right ; if not, God alone can save. To 
give him drastic medicine — powerful poison — 
may kill him and I would be the cause of his 
death." A state, like a wise physician, must let 
Nature run her course, applying such remedies 
(laws) as may best eliminate the wrongs of so- 
ciety, and bring about harmony, purity and 
peace. If the state meddles with the inherent 
rights of the subject, in the destruction of his 
peace and happiness, making unlawful that 
which he considers essential to his individual 
well-being, causing him to commit crime in ob- 
taining his end, then the state is administering 
powerful poisons which may kill the body pol- 
itic and cause anarchy and death to reign. 

In the above argument we do not mean to con- 
vey the idea that we would sanction or encour- 
age the black brute, or for that matter the white 
one, to obtain any legal sexual relation with a 
white or colored woman. We do not believe in 
the propagation of brutes in human form, white 
or black. 

We believe in a sanctified sexual relation, for 
the purpose of procreation only. Any other 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 295 

sexual relation is prostitution, and the state ought 
to punish this crime and protect society against 
it. But we believe it is the basest outrage for 
any state in the Union to prohibit any respect- 
able man and woman of any two races in it to 
unite in legal marriage, classing them with the 
lewd and vicious, causing social ostracism and 
a legal persecution that tends to debasement and 
criminality. We believe this country would be 
far better off without any marriage laws than to 
have pernicious ones that encourage crime. 

The American people, who ought to be the 
most democratic on earth, are the narrowest, 
most selfish, unreasonable creatures of any civ- 
ilized beings in the world today. They are 
more exclusive and prejudiced than were the 
ancient Hebrews against foreign races, yet they 
cross-breed more extensively! 

CANNOT PREVENT LOVE BUT 
WOULD NOT ADVISE MARRL^GE.— 
We refer to Miss Ovington, a white woman of 
the Negro settlement work in New York, as re- 
ported by an interviewer after the famous dinner 
for whites and blacks at the Cosmopolitan Club, 
which was so extensively discussed in the south- 
ern newspapers in 1908. She was asked: "Do 
you believe in intermarriage of the whites and 
blacks?" "No," she said, "I do not believe in 
the marriage of blacks and whites. I do not go 



296 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

that far. But I do advocate the freest mingling 
of the races. There is no reason why white per- 
sons should not meet cultured Negro men and 
women on terms of absolute equality. How can 
you better arrive at a solution of the Negro 
problem than by consultation and co-operation 
with the intelligent blacks? 

"But I would not hesitate to accept an invita- 
tion to dine with a Negro, just as I would not 
hesitate to meet with a Japanese, although I 
think marriage with a Japanese is as physically 
bad as with a Negro." 

"So if a young Negro met and fell in love 
with a white girl of the tenement you would not 
advocate their mariage?" was asked. 

"No, it would not be 'judicious,' " was her 
answer. 

If Miss Ovington believes it is not judicious for 
a colored man and white girl, who love each 
other, to marry, what does she mean? Is she, 
a northern woman, a believer in the custom of 
illicit mixing prevalent in the South? Must 
they live together out of wedlock? Is that her 
idea? Or does she advocate the barbarous 
method of stifling the affections, the blighting 
of two lives, the tearing apart of two souls, just 
because there is a difference in the color of their 
skin? 

Miss Ovington does not know the up-to-date, 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



297 



i> 








.. ■ .-. 


^■■■■■■- 








.f 




^.'■' 



■fp 



i 



.■^■Ayy.-y^ 



i 



Children born to Caucasian motffers and Negro fatliers in 
Alabama. Notice the cranium capacity of the boy baby. 



298 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

independent woman, who will have her own 
way in the choice of her affinity and husband, be 
he a Negro, Chinaman, Japanese or English 
nobleman. 

The very idea of depriving the new American 
woman of the right to choose, whom she intui- 
tively knows is, the man she wants! 

The Jap has been debarred from this country 
— there are influences at work which try to ex- 
clude him entirely — yet within the last few 
years there have been more intermarriages be- 
tween white American women and the "dear lit- 
tle yellow man" than ever before. Among many 
are Dorothy Russell, the daughter of Lillian 
Russell, the prima dona, who astonished her 
friends by marrying a wealthy Japanese, for- 
merly of New York. More recently Miss Helen 
Gladys Emery, the accomplished daughter ot 
Archbishop Emery, traveled a thousand miles to 
marry a middle class Japanese, a former servant 
of her father's house. California prohibits in- 
termarriage with Japanese, but she found the 
usual way in going to another state more Amer- 
ican. We have not space to give further illus- 
trations. Newspapers report many cases through- 
out the country. 

SHOULD BE NO ADAHXTURE OF 
RACIAL STOCK.— Now comes to the front 
the retired President Eliot, of Harvard Uni- 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



299 



versity, declaring at Montgomery, Alabama, 
while traveling through the South, that "there 
should be no admixture of racial stock"— and 
that in the face of the fact that the races have 
mixed throughout all the history of the world 
and that he himself is the product of such admix- 
ture. He further is reported to have said: "I 
believe, for example, that the Irish should not 
intermarry with the American of English de- 
scent (they are already mixed); that the Ger- 
mans should not marry the Italians, that the 
Jews should not marry the French. The ex- 
perience of civilization shows that racial stocks 
are never mixed with profit, and that such un- 
ions do not bring forth the best and strongest 
children." If this statement were true then the 
Anglo-Saxon must be a very unprofitable nation 
of imbeciles, for any small schoolboy can tell 
Dr. Ehot out of what material the Anglo-Saxon 
race is built. At one time, so history says, the 
Romans found an unmixed savage race in Great 
Britain, of such a low, degraded order that they 
thought such poor stock would never make de- 
cent slaves. Out of that degraded human ani- 
mal the present proud, dominant Anglo-Saxon 
evolved by the admixture of various foreign 
blood, VIZ., Roman, German, Dane, etc. 

Dr. Eliot says further: "There is no reason 
however, why the races cannot live together,' 



300 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

side by side, in perfect peace and unity. In the 
case of the Negroes and the whites, the races 
should be kept apart in every respect. The 
South has a wise policy/' How little this gen- 
tleman knows about the South and her policy, 
or the tendencies of the races thereof? 

It is a beautiful theory — the various races in 
America living side by side in sweet harmony, 
yet — "be kept apart in every respect." Angels 
might be induced to live thus — man never. 
When Eve offered the forbidden fruit to Adam, 
"He did eat." Nature ordained it so, God 
willed it, man obeyed. If the pink-skinned, 
so-called white race, considers it a crime in the 
South to pass intermarriage laws for a particular 
class of white and colored people, the present 
custom of illicit mixing is a far greater crime. 
Rather than to continue this crime, the lesser one 
of a legal union would prove a virtue that the 
world of today and the future generations of 
this embittered Southland would applaud. 

^ This "hair-splitting," race dividing business is 
often ridiculous to behold. Many times the 
conductors on the street cars and trains must ask 
the passengers, "Are you white or colored?" 
Sometimes a dark man, who goes out walking 
with a white colored woman, is arrested for 
walking with a white woman. He is held in 
prison until it is proven, beyond all doubt, that 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 301 

she has tvvo and one-half drops of Negro blood 
in her veins and is a "nigger." This "mixed 
race stock" can intermarry with the blackest 
Negro man or woman in the South, but with the 
pure blood whites (?) this stock must only "mix 
in the dark." 

The long haired Mississippian contends that 
"the Negro is bent on raping white women, be- 
cause he wants social equality." This state- 
ment is not a true one. He has in his own race 
a wide range of color, from the whitest to the 
blackest woman, and has no urgent desire to 
marry a full Caucasian woman. 

Where it is necessary to resort to this hair- 
splitting race division, is it possible, as Dr. Eliot 
says, that the races "be kept apart in every re-. 
spect?" 

THE MEN WHO ARE BENT ON MIX- 
ING. — It is not the northern yankee who feels 
called upon to mix with the colored races. The 
French have mixed more with the Indians of the 
northern states, Gulf coast and Canada, than all 
other races put together. The yankee has mixed 
extensively with the Irish, German, Scotch and 
others, whose parents came to the United States 
within the last hundred years. The progeny of 
the New England yankee and the German is the 
finest stock in America. It has the shrewd char- 
acteristics of the yankee and the plodding, 
thrifty, saving of the German. 



302 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

In the southern states there has been very little 
admixture of blood for several hundred years, 
save with the Negro and Indian. Only within 
recent years, since migration from the northern 
states has become general, has the mixing pro- 
cess with foreign Caucasian blood commenced. 
Because of the mixing with the Negro for so 
many generations, many southern men have in- 
herited an irresistible desire for illicit sexual 
connection with the Negress, or with any other 
dark race, such as the Indian. 

To illustrate this point we will recite just one 
case here. A South Carolinian went to Mon- 
tana to make his home. He missed the Negro 
there, but found the Indian. He at once pro- 
ceeded to make love to a pretty Indian maiden, 
named Mary La Brecka, of the Blackfoot In- 
dians. She would not consent to the southern 
method of illicit union he was accustomed to with 
the Negress. He was determined to have her 
so he married her. Then his trouble began, for 
he had a white wife in another place who soon 
discovered his exploits. He w^as arrested and 
prosecuted for bigamy. His white wife pro- 
cured a divorce, and besides a fine and imprison- 
ment he was sentenced by the judge to ''remarry 
the Indian woman." He did this without a 
protest. 

This example of the northwest gives us a clear 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 303 

idea of what the southern states might accom- 
plish in the way of a moral uplift, if the same 
laws were here in force and faithfully applied, 
as did Judge Hunt of Montana. 

Supposing this little Indian maiden had been 
a resident of South Carolina, and had been se- 
duced by a white rascal as thousands of colored 
maidens are every year in that and all the other 
southern states, what would have been the re- 
sults? She would have been an outcast, blighted, 
disgraced, brokenhearted being, with a white 
baby in her arms, that is all. No protection by 
law, no redress, nothing, nothing. The law of 
that state says the colored and white races must 
not marry, as it does in the other un-American 
states of our free ( ?) country. The weak, inno- 
cent, defenseless may suffer— that's nothing. We 
must preserve the integrity of our race at any 
cost. 

COMPELLED TO ADVOCATE LEGAL 
TNTERMARRL-\GE.-As a careful student 
of man, and as a scientist without prejudice we 
are compelled to advocate, as the lesser evil, 
legal intermarriage. On the other hand all his- 
tory testifies that the mixed races of the world 
have been the foremost, and that Nature com- 
pels mixing for evolutionary growth; that the 
Anglo-Saxon is but one example in many of such 
a growth, evolved out of one of the most unprom- 



304 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ising savage races as its foundation. Again, an\r 
one who has investigated the conditions in the 
South, and has found, many times, the love, fidel- 
ity and absolute devotion between the good men 
and women of the races, cannot, with a heart for 
love of liberty and justice, advocate a system or 
uphold a law that will tear asunder hearts and 
families and homes that God Almighty has es- 
tablished and blessed. If the South is today 
pursuing a just policy, its crop of illicit births 
testify that it is founded on hell! To continue 
to advocate the South's policy of separation in 
the day and mixing in the dark, will in time en- 
tirely obliterate every atom of moral sense in 
both races, and both will sink into hopeless de- 
pravity. 

If a colored woman is good enough to co- 
habit with, she is good enough to become the 
lawful wife of the white man. He must marry 
her as does the colored man his white wife in 
the North. 

THE TRUE STATE OF THE COL- 
ORED WOMAN.— Our object here is to lay 
before the reader the true state many colored 
women are in today, and the conditions under 
which they are forced to live. 

We are conscious of the fact that the t^vo 
races are mixing more today than ever before. 
The race of mulattoes is increasing. And while 



n 

o 

C 



G 
n 



i^ 






70 









in 
d 







OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 305 

this is true the same custom which existed dur- 
ing slavery times still prevails, and the colored 
woman is a slave to it. With all her wisdom, 
refinement and intelligence acquired during the 
past forty-five years, she has not yet exercised 
herself, with few exceptions, in the demand of 
a legal union with her paramour of another 
color. She is still content to remain the tool of 
the passions of more than twenty-five per cent of 
the white men of the South, with whom she has 
criminal sexual connections. She is still con- 
tent to be branded before the civilized world as 
the mother of a race of bastards. She has all 
the attributes which go to make an ideal wife 
and mother, but she has not the moral stamina to 
make one under the present terrible adverse con- 
ditions. These conditions have so depleted her 
moral sense of decency that she has only a flick- 
ering idea of sexual purity. Is not our civiliza- 
tion to blame, that has made her what she is? 

She is religious— very religious, but all her 
religious exercises and exaltations do not incul- 
cate in her the necessity of moral purity, which 
should prevent her from indulging sexual con- 
nections with more than one man, or only with 
the colored or white man she loves. This is 
true with many exceptions of the higher, respon- 
sible class. 

When some leading men and women of the 



306 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

races are asked to give their opinion as to the 
best method that might be pursued to rid the 
races of this degrading condition which will 
finally land both into utter ruin, the majority 
exclaim — "Why!" Then they will explain to 
you that they do not advocate social equality, or 
miscegenation, or amalgamation, or any other 
thing that will in any way interfere with the 
present debasing practices between them. 

There is a fearful spirit manifested here that 
does not become the men and women who have 
proven themselves heroic along other lines of 
endeavor. 

Something must be done. 

Here is the gist of all the blighting curse en- 
gendered: Aside from this strange union and 
sexual satisfaction the colored woman will love 
the white man, and the white man the colored 
woman; but this fact must be carefully hid by 
her in most cases as well as by him. Both thus 
necessarily harbor a sneaking sense of watchful- 
ness and cunning, and the children born under 
this state of mind generally inherit the same 
sneaking, sexual craving; thus increasing the 
present growing class of born reprobates. And 
it does not matter whether her lover be the 
father of her children, or whether he be white 
or black, the same results will follow. A white 
man who keeps company with a colored woman 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 307 

while raising a family with his white ^ife, is 
liable to curse his white children likewise. 

Loose marriage relations in both races are 
more liable to result in poor offspring than oth- 
erwise. 

Under these conditions the hand that rocks 
the cradle damns a nation! 

The blight which rests upon the issue of il- 
licit sexual intercourse between the races can only 
be removed by a legal intermarriage, or a ren- 
dering respectable by public consent. And ren- 
dering this respectable need not embrace social 
equality. The object to be attained is to liber- 
ate the colored woman from sexual slavery, as 
well as the white woman who finds her affinity 
in the colored race, and thereby produce a better 
offspring and law abiding citizen for this great 
republic. 

No radical racial improvement can take place 
as long as a sneaking sexual secrecy is main- 
tained between the races in this country. The 
white South as well as the black is already 
steeped in moral depravity because of it. If 
there were no marriage prohibitions between the 
races a more natural condition would soon be 
brought about. An open, legal union, with a 
natural, modulated separation of the races, with- 
out any state interference, is the only policy our 
nation can pursue if growth instead of decay is 
to be our lot. 



308 HOLM'S RACE ASSBIILATION 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS SAW IT.— 

Frederick Douglass, that man of clear fore- 
sight and iron will, saw the day when a firm 
stand must be taken to prevent utter sexual cor- 
ruption between the races. He saw that the two 
races could not forever live together and not 
amalgamate lawfully. He saw that the custom 
of illicit mixing of the former slave master with 
his female chattels could not forever be endured 
i>y a free, refined, educated colored womanhood. 
He took the step, he set the example, though he 
was mocked, derided and met with a storm of 
protests by influential members of his race. He 
stepped out like a man and married the white 
woman who was willing to love him and marry 
him. Who has ever thought him a coward? 
The coward belongs to the other class — the 
sneaking white man who slips into the home of 
his colored woman after dark and out before 
daylight, and the colored woman who loves him 
but does not insist on their legal union. If she 
would follow the example of the little Indian 
girl referred to above, he would travel a thou- 
sand miles with her in order to make her his 
legal wife in a free state, or he would let her 
alone. 

As long as the colored woman is considered 
so cheap, so common, the men of her own race 
as well as white men will fool with her and seek 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



309 



her degradation, and consider her common 
property, in other words, a sexual slave. 

We care little for the adverse opinions of 
black men or white men, or of mixed men jus- 
tice, that's what we want, what we demand. We 
stand for the moral uplift of the colored woman- 
hood, the white manhood — their freedom from 
the cursed custom of illicit mixing of slavery 
times! The laws must be so changed that there 
is no occasion for illicit mixing. And when a 
colored man is found in the society of a white 
woman, with her consent, there shall be no lynch- 
ing, neither prosecution, but marriage. 

You may call this social equality, you may 
call it an outrage to the white race— especially 
the white woman; but it is neither! It is noth- 
ing but justice— justice in an equal sexual op- 
portunity and protection between the races, as 
they live and move and have their being to- 
gether in this great Southland and every other 
part of our union. 

INTERMARRIAGE PROHIBITIONS 
ARE DEGRADING.— We have seen in the 
foregoing that intermarriage prohibitions are 
absolutely degrading between the races in this 
country. First, that such prohibitions cannot 
be enforced; secondly, that such prohibitions 
are contrary to human nature, reason and jus- 
tice. It is contended by a certain class of south- 



310 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

erners that if no marriage prohibitions did exist 
in the South, the Negro would force his way 
into the parlor of the white man and insist in 
keeping company with his daughter. 

What a silly argument. In the crowded 
Negro centers of many northern cities where 
marriage is not forbidden, the same kind of 
Negro lives that exists in the South, and the 
white man has never found cause for such a com- 
plaint. No, it is not that. It is the political 
boss, the law-maker, the feudal lord of the South, 
who lives in illicit relationship with Negro 
women, who wants to keep her thus in ignorance 
as his sexual slave, who is the bitterest opponent 
of legal intermarriage. The better class of men 
of means who have colored wives would wel- 
come nothing more ferventlv than a law that 
would legalize their offspring and make respect- 
able their pretty little waives and family. We 
could recite a number of cases where these men 
came in conflict with this demagogue, because 
they insisted on living as respectable and openly 
as possible with their colored wives and familv. 

THE COLORED MAN WOULD RE- 
CEIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE.— With the over- 
throw of this political gang that rules the South 
the colored man would receive social justice. 
When a bad white woman accuses him wrong- 
fully, he would then not be thrust into prison 



UR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 311 

without a fair trial. A number of such cases 
have come under our observation. The colored 
man is by no means always guilty when accused 
by a white woman. \A'e will give a few ex- 
amples to show the reader why. A southern 
white woman had kept company with a Negro 
man for more than two years. She one day de- 
manded money of him which he could not sup- 
ply just at the time. She got him in a compromis- 
ing position with herself, when she suddenly 
gave a fierce alarm. He was caught, narrowly 
escaped lynching, was prosecuted and sent to 
the coal mines for life. At this writing there is 
a colored man in an Alabama prison who came 
to grief in nearly the same manner. Seemingly 
a northern woman, who had not been long in the 
city, became acquainted with this man and en- 
couraged him. At various times he sent her 
flowers and fruit, etc., until one day a note from 
him fell into the hands of the woman with whom 
she was boarding. This woman gave the note to 
her husband who made inquiry of the woman 
boarder. When she saw that she was about to 
be exposed she denied any friendship with the 
Negro, and said it was very impudent of him, 
etc. The man, in true southern chivalry, ad- 
vised her to notify the police. This she did, and 
now her dark lover is in prison. He produced 
evidence of their intimacy in the shape of several 



312 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
■■ 1 



r 






,-r m 


f 






-fe. 















PRETTY COLORED CAUCASIAN WOMEN FROM THE GULF. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 313 

check stubs, which were made out to her, and 
the checks of which she had cashed in a city 
bank. But all evidence he might produce will 
undoubtedly avail him nothing. But there are 
places in the far South where sentiment is 
stronger than the law . We have knowledge of 
a case in Tampa, Florida. A white woman got 
her Negro man into trouble of a like nature, but 
the colored man proved by white and colored 
witnesses that she had lived with him ten years. 
She was ordered out of town and he was released 
from prison. In some parts of Florida intermar- 
riage is very common, and the existing law op- 
posing it is a dead letter. Cubans and others ar- 
rive in that state with black wives, and many 
others also have colored wives and families. 

In relating the above cases we do not attempt 
to prove that all white women will deny their 
relationship w^ith colored men, for many good 
and brave white women do not. A case came 
to our notice not long since, where a white 
woman arrived in a southern town with her col- 
ored husband. As soon as they were discovered 
he was thrown into prison by the brave (?) offi- 
cer of the law, who never recognizes a colored 
woman while the sun shines. She fought for her 
swarthy husband like a little heroine she was. 
She demanded of the judge to "let her husband 
go;" that he was hers, and that they had no right 



314 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

to imprison or detain him. She produced their 
marriage certificate and the fact that they were 
legally married in a free state and were not 
slaves. Finally the court ruled that the woman 
was of a very loiu, degraded character, and that 
the "ni^ser'' should be released and both be 
compelled to leave within twenty-four hours. 

A very amusing case is related of a bishop of 
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 
He had a very fair w^ife, in fact so fair that an 
expert could not tell that she was colored. While 
holding conference in a Mississippi town he was 
arrested for being with a white woman. It was 
necessary for them to produce proof from theiF 
native town that she was there knoivn as colored. 

Now, it is evident that all this silly persecu- 
tion of the colored man with regard to the white 
woman would cease, just as soon as the dominat- 
ing set of political vagabonds in the South is cast 
out of office, and, if possible out of the country. 
The two races cannot live in peace and happi- 
ness together as long as this set of race hating, 
bulldozing: anarchists rule the South. We have 
reasons to believe that their days are numbered. 
There is a hand writing on the wall. 

OUR MARRIAGE LAWS ARE OUT- 
RAGEOUS. — There is no country on earth to- 
day, that makes any pretense at civilization or 
the social regulation of its citizens, that has as 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 315 

varied and conflicting a set of marriage laws as 
have these United States, A foreigner coming 
to our country and looking over our marriage 
statutes in the various states for the first time, 
must, indeed, feel that he is beholding a "crazy- 
quilt" in law-making that must ever disgrace the 
f ramers of them in the eyes of our future, great, 
mixed population. In some states, like Illi- 
nois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, etc., 
there are no race prohibitions. In others, like 
Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, Texas, and all the other southern and 
some western states, marriage between Negroes 
and whites is prohibited. Some of them have 
prohibitions between Indians and whites and 
Mongolians and whites. California is one of 
the states prohibiting marriage between whites 
and Negroes, Mongolians and mulattoes. Other 
states, like Arizona, have prohibitions between 
Indians and whites or Chinese and whites. Yet 
another state, like Oklahoma, encourages mar- 
riage between Indians and whites, while with 
even the refined Negro it is considered a disgrace 
and unlawful. In some states where marriage 
with the African descent or Indian is prohibited, 
there are few Negroes or Indians. For instance, 
Maine has an Indian population of less than 700, 
but prohibits marriage with them, while Okla- 
homa has the largest in the United States (75,- 
000) and endeavors to amalgamate them. 



316 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATIOM 








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, 












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vT. C. Holmes 





PRUTTY FRENCH CREOLE LADIES. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 317 

iVgain, Nevada has less than 200 Afro-Amer- 
icans, but has an intermarriage prohibition, 
while Pennsylvania, with more than 175,000, 
New York, with more than 100,000, Ohio, with 
more than 100,000, Illinois with more than 100,- 
000, have no marriage prohibitions. 

The very fact that the law in some states says 
that there shall be no marriage between the Cau- 
casian and the mulatto, is a confession that the 
mulatto actually exists. Furthermore, the law, by 
making this restriction on the one hand, silently 
grants the existence of illicit mixing on the 
other; or, perhaps more correctly, is too im- 
potent to cope with it. 

The same class of Indians and Negroes may be 
found in all the states and also the same class of 
whites, and yet there exists this difference in our 
marriage laws of the various states. 

This goes to show that no state can justly and 
successfully legislate on matters pertaining to the 
affairs of the heart of its sane and law-abiding 
citizens — whom they shall or shall not marry 
— and that there should be no statute in any state 
prohibiting intermarriage, and thereby encour- 
aging crime. 

Our marriage laws are an outrage to our civ- 
ilization. 

WHERE INDIANS AND WHITES 
MARRY. — We take the following interesting 



318 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

reading from a southern newspaper, "The Me- 
ridian Dispatch," a strong Mississippi daily, 
which proves the fact that the southern people 
are interested in a question which, even this early 
day, confronts them and demands attention 
throughout the South. This article says: 

"While the new State of Oklahoma is more 
southern than western, and while the Negro is 
accorded no social equality, the Indian, if he be 
educated and possessed of property, is on an 
equal footing with the whites. Oklahoma 
boasts of thousands of prosperous American cit- 
izens who trace their ancestry on one or both 
sides to the aborigines. 

"For example, an Indian is attorney for one of 
the biggest western railroads, is a graduate of 
an eastern university and a man of influence in 
the state. His wife, a charming white woman, 
is as proud of her husband's red ancestry as is 
many a New Yorker of descent from the De 
Lanceys or Livingstones. 

"No social stigma attaches to the intermar- 
riage of w^hites and Indians, at least when the 
latter are of the better class. An illustration of 
this state of afifairs was the experience of a New 
York woman traveling last winter in Oklahoma. 

"On my way from Muskogee to a near-by 
ciry," she said, "I met in the Pullman car an 
intelligent, well-appearing young white woman 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 319 

who chatted with me about the people. I dis- 
played my tenderfoot ignorance by asking her if 
many Indians in the state were civilized. 

"My neighbor smiled at me indulgently, and 
answered: "Oh, yes, many of our finest men 
are Indians, or part Indian. My husband," she 
added, holding her head a little higher, "is a 
member of the Chickasaw nation." 

"My husband's father," she went on to ex- 
plain, "was a white man, a physician. He sent 
his son to Yale, and when he died he left a good 

property in M . My own people were early 

comers to Oklahoma, and I have lived here all 
my life. My husband's mother, a full-blooded 
Chickasaw, is still living, and owns one of the 

handsomest homes in M . She has a great 

many Indian relics, of which we are very 
proud. I suppose you know that the two prin- 
cipal tribes here are the Choctaw and the Chick- 
asaw. Every member of these tribes has land 
apportioned to him by the government. My lit- 
tle daughter, five years old, as a member of the 
Chickasaw nation, has land which brings her an 
income of $750 a year. My husband and I are 
putting this money in the bank to her account, 
and when she is old enough it will be sufficient 
to send her to an eastern college. My husband 
also has holdings in the Chickasaw lands, and the 
law gives me, as an 'intermarried citizen,' an 
equal amount." 



320 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Dr. Booker T. Washington says of his visit to 
Oklahoma: "It was in the fall that I spent a 
week in Oklahoma. During the course of my 
visit I had an opportunity for the first time to 
see the three races — the Negro, the Indian, and 
the white man — living side by side, each in suf- 
ficient numbers to make their influence felt in 
the community of which they were a part, and in 
the territory as a whole. It was not my first 
acquaintance with the Indian. During the last 
years of my stay at Hampton Institute I had 
charge of the Indian students there, and had 
come to have a high respect both for their char- 
acter and intelligence, so that I was particularly 
interested to see them in their own country, 
where they still preserved to some extent their 
native institutions. I was all the more impressed, 
on that acount, with the fact that in the cities 
that I visited I rarely caught sight of a genuine 
native Indian. When I inquired, as I frequently 
did, for the 'natives,' it almost invariably hap- 
pened that I was introduced, not to an Indian, 
but to a Negro. During my visit to the city of 
Muskogee I stopped at the home of one of the 
prominent 'natives' of the Creek Nation, the 
Hon. C. W. Sango, superintendent of the Tulla- 
hasse Mission. But he was a Negro. . The 
Negroes who are known in that locality as "na- 
tives" are the descendents of slaves that the In- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 321 

dians brought with them from Alabama and 
Mississippi, when they migrated to this territory 
about the middle of the last century. I was in- 
troduced later to one or two other 'natives' who 
were not Negroes, but neither were they, as far 
as my observation went, Indians. They were, 
on the contrary, white men. 'But where,' I 
asked at length, 'arc the Indians?' " 

"Oh! the Indians," was the reply, "they have 
gone" — with a wave of the hand in the direction 
of the horizon — "they have gone back!" * * 
* * "One cannot escape the impression, in 
traveling through Indian Territory, that the In- 
dians, who own practically all the lands, and 
until recently had the local government largely 
in their hands, are to a very large extent regarded 
by the white settlers, who are rapidly filling up 
the country, as almost a negligible quantity To 
such an extent is this true that the constitution of 
Oklahoma, as I understand it, takes no account 
of the Indians in drawing its distinctions among 
the races. For the constitution there exists only 
the Negro and the white man. The reason 
seems to be that the Indians have either receded 
— "gone back," as the saying in that region is — 
on the advance of the w^hite race, or they have 
intermarried w^ith and become absorbed with it. 
Indeed, so rapidly has this intermarriage of the 
two races gone on, and so great has been the de- 

21 



322 



flOLACS RACE ASSIMILATION 






PRETTY BROWN AND YELLOW LADIES. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 323 

mand for Indian wives, that in some of the na- 
tions, I was informed, the price of marriage li- 
cense has gone as high as $i,ooo." 

It will be readily seen by our readers that this 
rapid amalgamating process between the white 
and red races is not because of special worth or 
superior physical beauty, but because of a 
pecuniary consideration on the white man's part 
in most cases. Many white men became "squaw 
men" in Indian Territory years ago, not because 
she was pretty, civilized, intelligent, or refined, 
but because she possessed "something substantial 
worth looking after." While the full-blooded 
Indian woman is rarely attractive, she has al- 
ways made a very faithful and dutiful wife and 
mother to the white man, and her children by 
him have nearly always possessed superior phys- 
ical beauty. Some of the best looking women in 
Oklahoma have Indian blood in their veins, and 
many men now prefer these to a pure-blooded 
white woman, and vice versa. But, while we 
say this, let the reader remember that the woman 
of Negro descent, in Oklahoma and elsewhere in 
the South, in whose veins often flows the blood 
of both the white and red races, if she be edu- 
cated, has the most charming and magnetic per- 
sonality of any woman on the American conti- 
nent. If she were placed in the same -position 
as the Indian woman of Oklahoma occupies^ 



324 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




TWO COLORED BEAUTIES OF THE FAR SOUTH. 
"When the wind blows cold." 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 325 

white men in every station in life would take her 
as a legal wife. And the same is true of the col- 
ored men. We have never heard a white woman 
say that an Indian man possessed any degree of 
physical beauty, or, in other words, a pleasing 
physiognomy, while many cultured Negro men 
are pronounced handsome by the best feminine 
judges in such matters. 

If the Negro did not occupy such an unfavor- 
able political position in this country, and the 
stigma of his former bondage were removed, 
there would be little objections by the law-mak- 
ers to legal intermarriage with the refined and 
educated class of African blood. And, as we 
have already said, there is a better class of white 
men in the South who w^ould fervently welcome 
a legal union between the races in these states, in 
spite of all prejudice, and forever remove the 
degrading conditions as they now are. From 
these men we shall undoubtedly hear in some 
future day. 

A POLITICAL CHANGE MEANS SO- 
CIAL ELEVATION AND SALVATION. 
— Right here we want our readers to bear in 
mind that a political change in the South is a 
necessity, before social elevation and salvation 
is possible in the white as well as the black race. 
As long as a set of self-centered men can obtain 
and maintain political life in the South, by pit- 



326 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ting one race against the other, so long will the 
masses of both races "go begging." The best 
interest of both races in the South is identical. 
As soon as the better class of both races discover 
this fact they will unite and obtain control of the 
South. As soon as this control has been obtained, 
the marriage laws now on the statute books of 
the southern states will be so changed that the 
social relations between the races will become 
elevating, tending to a pure home life and a legal 
union between the sexes of the races. And here 
we touch upon one more thought, and we are 
done: 

LOVE BETWEEN THE SEXES OF THE 
RACES IS CONDUCIVE TO HOME- 
LIFE. — The love which exists between the men 
and women of the two races in thousands of in- 
stances is conducive to pure home-life, good 
morals and splendid citizenship, if it were legal- 
ized and made respectable, as In the case of the 
Indians and whites in Oklahoma. 

Love, though elevating and purifying in its 
attributes under natural conditions, may be 
dragged in the mire and be made disreputable 
between the sanest and most respectable citi- 
zens of two races, when the laws oppose and 
customs forbid. A white woman, though 
pure and good, is pronounced low and de- 
graded when she unites in love and marriage 



OR THE FADING LEOP.ARD'S SPOTS 327 

with a colored man. A white man, though 
he may keep company w^ith a colored woman as 
a matter of course, is ostracized by society if he 
claims her as his legal wife. She even is pro- 
nounced low and degraded by her own race, 
though she has never known a man but him. 
The Negro's mind is warped in this by the south- 
ern white man as in many other respects. His 
narrowness and stupid race pride cause him to 
rather degrade the womanhood of his race than 
to champion her rights as a woman among 
women. The day will come when the colored 
women, who now step out boldly and proclaim 
their love for and fidelity to white men, will be 
revered by the race as champions of liberty and 
mothers of justice. 

Prof. O. S. Fowler, our revered teacher, has 
long since proclaimed this fundamental law of 
love as overruling all human law: 

"When God's 'higher law' conflicts with man's 
lower, the higher should annul and overrule the 
lower. His laws alone are right, and create 
right. Human law cannot make that right 
which His natural law interdicts; nor that 
wrong which Divine law sanctions; for all hu- 
man laws derive their obligability from their 
being rescripts of the Divine. Natural law en- 
acts that physical and mental love go hand in 
hand together. The injuries and agonies of love 



328 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

interrupted or disappointed are caused solely by 
violating this law; and can arrest only thus: — 
STOP LOVING, OR ELSE COHABIT 
AND PROCREATE TOGETHER." 

The peculiar attractiveness between the races, 
who will forever live side by side, will become 
more and more aggravated as the Afro-Ameri- 
can moves upward into the higher realms of 
mental and moral attainments; and the two races 
will not— "STOP LOVING," nor yet stop pro- 
creating together. Intellectual and moral at- 
tainments will not stop this loving and procreat- 
ing, but is bound to legalize it. Men and women 
of enlightenment and civilization, the world 
over, hate slavery in this age of tremendous evo- 
lutions, especially that kind of slavery which 
prescribes to them — strong, sane, intelligent citi- 
zens — what kind of sexual life-mates they shall 
or shall not select for their individual happiness 
and wellbeing. 

The race question is not and never will be 
solved, until legal intermarriage can take place 
in all the states without a shadow of prejudice 
or social ostracism. This fact is well illustrated 
in the following newspaper clipping from the 
New Orleans Picayune. Such places as here 
referred to have never experienced mob violence 
or lynchings, but nearly always possessed the 
sweetest harmony and good fellowship between 
the races. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 329 




rT-\ TlD/^r^DT?CC 



330 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

"WHY THE LAW IS POWERLESS.— 

Where White Swear They are Black, Convic- 
tion is Impossible. 'She's my wife. We have 
lived together thirty-eight years. The law can- 
not estrange us.' Thus spoke Joseph Lawrence, 
a white farmer, in the second criminal court at 
New Orleans, La., recently, while he was wait- 
ing trial on the charge of marrying a colored 
woman. Through the arrest of LawTence and 
his colored wife the police discovered a hard 
situation. All around Lee Station the white 
farmers and fishermen and other classes have 
intermarried with colored people and reared 
large families, regardless of the law against such. 
A number of arrests have been made, but it has 
been impossible to convict one for the reason 
that the white parties all went on the stand and 
swore they were colored. Just what the prose- 
cuting attorney can do remains to be seen." 

It remains to be seen, as the Picayune says, 
what the law can do with men and women of the 
two races who will "not stop loving" or procre- 
ating together. This community, as many others 
in the South, shows that love between the sexes 
of the races is conducive to harmony, good 
home-life, good citizenship, etc., when it is 
allowed to culminate in legal intermarriage, but 
that it, on the other hand, degrades and brutal- 
izes when the offending parties are continually 



OR TFIE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 331 

dragged into court and subjected to the sense- 
less prejudice of the dominating class, or when 
this dominating class is allowed, by the old cus- 
tom of the South, to take the advantage of the 
defenseless colored women. 

The Martin case, which has recently gone the 
rounds in the newspapers, is but a fair example. 
The Martins are reported to be rich planters 
who live near Crenshaw, Mississippi. The 
Oliver girl, who is a beautiful octoroon, had 
been living at the Martin household for six 
months. She went there as a servant, but young 
Martin took her out of the chambers, gowned 
her in costly clothes and openly rode about the 
neighborhood with her. Angry and heart- 
broken at the ruin of her beautiful daughter, 
Mrs. Oliver, in whose veins ran the blood of a 
chivalrous white race, went to the Martin house 
in company with another daughter and de- 
manded that her daughter return with her. 
Young Martin heard the demands of the women 
from his room, he walked out to the gallery with 
a gun and fired four shots into the women, who 
fell dead. There is nothing extraordinary about 
this case. Such cases are an everyday occur- 
rence in this country. Had it not been for the 
killing of the two women connected with the 
case, the Oliver girl would have remained the 
mistress of Arthur Martin as long as she would 



332 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

have pleased him, but no legal union would have 
been possible, even had they both desired it. 

We have related the above cases, because we 
wish our readers to compare the two systems — 
the Lee Station system and the Martin system — 
and then determine which is the most civilized,, 
ethical and Christian. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 333 

CHAPTER XV 
woman's place and POWER 

A PERFECT POSTERITY SHOULD BE 
THE AIM. — In this age of reason and en- 
lightenment man cannot afford to drift on in 
primitive customs and laws. It is now general- 
ly conceded that man is here for a definite pur- 
pose, viz., the betterment of his kind, the im- 
provement of his material environments, and 
lastly, but not least, the possible acquisition of 
immortality. These are the fundamental prin- 
ciples upon which a true Christian civilization 
rests. First, and above all, he must, this day, in 
the light of reason, consider his kind. An edu- 
cator has recently said that he would rather be 
a hog than a man at the present time, in this 
country, as the government paid more attention 
to the hog, its diseases, cultivation, care, etc., 
than to man. A well-bred pig is of more con- 
sequence to the government than a well-bred 
babe. A thoroughbred, or rather, perfect babe 
is not even dreamed of, notwithstanding the fact 
that self-improvement or the betterment of the 
human race, is the highest duty of man and the 
governments of men. The question under dis- 
cussion calls for at least a little space here, and 
some thought on the subject of proper marriage. 



334 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

There is really very little attention oaid to the 
proper mating of the sexes by the young men 
and women who contemplate marriage, with a 
view of becoming the parents of the best bred 
children obtainable. Although the highest duty 
of man, this is sadly ignored by nearly all. 
Young men and women come together in a hap- 
hazard way, for most any purpose save the true 
one. There is as little scientific judgment and 
reason used by most, in this regard, as by the 
beasts in the field who mate and have their young 
as nature prompts them to do. 

CHILDREN A NECESSARY EVIL.— 
All for better conveniences, social, financial rea- 
sons, fleeting passions, all kinds of make-beliefs, 
nothing more. Children? — they are only a nec- 
essary evil if they come, and by all means let 
them be only a few and far between if they can- 
not be entirely avoided. It is considered ill-bred 
for refined white women to be the proud pos- 
sessors of eight or ten strong, healthy, vigorous 
little animals, growing up into fine men and 
women. - 

Statistics show that the number of children of 
school age have decreased within the last few 
years in our native state, Wisconsin, confirming 
the danger of race suicide, notwithstanding the 
encouragement given by ex-President Roosevelt 
to the contrary. That there will be no children 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 335 

left if the present race suicide tendencies con- 
tinue during the next century throughout the 
civihzed world, was the prediction made by 
Prof. Walter P. Wilcox, before a class in sani- 
tary science and public health, at Cornell uni- 
versity. Wilcox does not accept the theory that 
the advance in civilization, or the spread of dis- 
ease, is responsible for the decrea.se in the birth 
rate. He said: 

"The true reason for the fall ,n the birth rate 
IS that in modern times, mainly in the last half 
century, births and the b.rth rate have come 
under the control of the human will and choice 
in a sense and to a degree never before true 
1 his power to control the increase has been used 
and IS being used today far too exclusively with 
reference to private economic advantage, and 
far too little with due consideration to social 
welfare and progress." 

SINGLE BLESSEDNESS.-What? Let 
the inferior take your place while you, who are 
so well fitted to become mothers, parade in sin- 
gle blessedness? 

You have not been asked .^ Pick out the best 
man you can find and ask him. Why not? Is 
It a disgrace to obey God and denounce a bar- 
barous custom? Never. 

All creation shouts and sings, Nature claps its 
hands m glee, angels proclaim the glad tidings 



336 HOLiMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

of great joy, for, behold, the highest created be- 
ing has arrived — a babe! 

Every knee bows before maternity, but not 
one before enforced sterility or single blessed- 
ness — not one. You may desire no homage, 
many do. 

WOMEN WILL PROPOSE.— Let us not 
forget that the social custom which still pre- 
vails, which gives the "lord of creation" the sole 
right to propose, has shipwrecked many a sweet 
soul of strong maternal desires, well fitted to ful- 
fill their rightful mission, but helpless and 
powerless to do so. Condemn these? God for- 
bid. We feel for them and are their best friends. 
As long as men are the sole proposers and women 
the sole disposers, divorce courts will continue 
to grow fat. 

The time is at hand when women will have a 
social right to propose, to choose and ask the 
men of their choice to become their life-mates 
and the fathers of their children. This right 
belongs to her by the highest law. She is the 
mother of the most perfect created being — the 
likeness of God. She must obey the command 
of her Creator and bring forth children. She 
cannot, in the light of this divine law, rely upon 
the man of the present age, under existing social 
customs, to come to her and ask her to be his 
mate, just when she is in her best physical and 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 337 

mental condition. If he come, he may be 
either too soon or too late in her life. There 
was a time when all women were married at an 
early age (in Eastern countries this custom still 
prevails), and when single women were the rare 
exceptions. But in such a crude state of society 
women were often mere chattels; but conditions 
have so changed in America and Europe that it 
should no longer be immodest, but entirely 
chaste and honorable for any nice, right-think- 
ing up-to-date young woman, white or colored, 
to propose. Should he refuse, what then? She 
can, with propriety, soothe her wounded heart 
and try once more, and perchance she may find 
one who can love her better and be a better 
father to her children. We are pleased to know 
that some prominent men and women have al- 
ready taken in hand this "proposal reform," and 
will undoubtedly succeed, in due time, to intro- 
duce this very desirable as well as righteous 
custom. 

Mrs. Harriet J. Wood, a New York lawyer, 
who is an advocate of this reform says: "Since 
the object to be attained is the perfection of the 
human race, mothers should choose the fathers 
of their children." 

We would add that we look for no mentally 
and physically perfect children until this is done, 
and done with a full knowledge of scientific 

22 



338 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

adaptation and the natural, intuitive sense of 
woman. 

"There is no doubt that the selection of the 
husband should really rest with the woman," 
says Dr. Denslow Lewis. "In the animal world 
it is invariably the female that chooses her mate. 
Only in the human race is the right of selection 
arbitrarily given to the male. Left to herself, 
and with no hampering conventions to interfere, 
the woman would be the most discriminating 
chooser. With all sorts of men to select from 
she would be in no hurry to mate with the first 
little man that popped the question. Women 
love physical perfection. With her right to 
select unquestioned, a woman would pick out the 
man of her own physical ideal, woo him with all 
her varied arts and fascinations at her disposal, 
and nine times out of ten get him. Physically 
the race would be greatly benefitted. There are 
many thousands of women in this country who 
have married men just because they have been 
asked and who now live the lives of housekeeping 
drudges, bound to the so-called home only by the 
stern dictates of duty." 

"The right of man alone to put the all-im- 
portant question of her life to the woman he 
selects," says James Grant, "has come into 
fashion only with the advent of civilization, 
which is, as we know, but a relative term." 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 33» 

"The exclusive right of proposing marriage 
did not always belong to the lords of creation, 
and since it has become his special privilege, 
men," says Dr. Westermarck, the eminent Ger- 
man ethnologist, "have deteriorated in physical 
worth. Even now, among those races which dis- 
tinguish woman by giving her the right to select 
the man who is to preserve the species which she 
is to mother, the finest specimens of physical 
manhood are to be found. Among primitive 
races, modern as well as ancient, the right of 
selecting her mate was always given to the 
woman." 

"Primitive societies were intelligent enough," 
says M. Dromart, "to allow the law of compen- 
sation to work. They realized that the species 
could only be preserved in its original excel- 
lence by allowing the female the right to exer- 
cise her discretion as to who should be allowed 
to mate with her. The law of all primitive 
societies allowed her to choose, and, in the ma- 
jority of cases, severely penalized the occasional 
aggressor who forced his attentions upon an un- 
willing woman. What was the result? A race 
of perfect men grew into being. All the males 
in the tribe strove by their accomplishments in 
feats of strength and endurance to win the at- 
traction of the women, whose choice was there- 
fore fixed according to the highest criterion of 



340 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




Creole; giri-s of the gulf— future leaders in society. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 341 

physical manliness. Nowadays, however, it is 
often the men who are the least athletic, and in 
most cases the least worthy physically, who show 
the greatest pretensions, or who devote most 
time to attracting the attention of the opposite 
sex. The consequence is that we see undersized 
and often almost decrepit men mated with 
women of magnificent physical proportions, all 
the disparities reappearing, particularly in re- 
gard to their detrimental aspect in the offspring, 
which is more often than not unequal and unen- 
during." 

WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE WOULD 
PROVE OF BENEFIT TO MAN.— Esther 
F. Boland says: "Most persons accept as true 
the statement by Plato, 'The woman's cause is 
man's; they rise or sink together, dwarfed or 
God-like, bond or free,' and suffragists, there- 
fore, deem it simply necessary to show that 
woman's cause would be advanced by her en- 
franchisement since, if this can be proved, it 
follows that the measure would benefit men. 
Unfortunately, the cause of woman's rights, so- 
called, has been largely concerned with woman's 
wrongs, and in the effort to right these wrongs 
it has been impossible to avoid a seeming antag- 
onism towards men. However, w^ith the partial 
attainment of much which women strove for in 
the early days, such as the equalization of the 



342 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

property rights of husband and wife, the higher 
education of women, the enlargement of the 
sphere of their industrial activities, and so on, 
the movement to obtain enfranchisement has as- 
sumed a somewhat different aspect. We now 
more often than otherwise hear the reform urged 
as a method of securing co-operation between 
men and women who are working for the moral 
elevation of society, and as a means of rendering 
the influence of women in public affairs more 
effective. It is also claimed that women suf- 
frage would strengthen the bond between hus- 
band and wife by adding one more common in- 
terest, and that it would increase woman's gen- 
eral intelligence by enlarging her outlook and 
imposing responsibility in important affairs of 
government, thus making her a more intelligent 
companion to her husband. Furthermore, it is 
held that the removal of the stigma of political 
disability would strengthen a mother's hold 
upon her sons, and that she would be better qual- 
ified to inculcate high standards of public in- 
tegrity. Suffragists believe that a dispassionate 
consideration of this question in its present as- 
spects would lead to the conclusion that al- 
though designed primarily to confer upon 
women the power and dignity which attaches to 
self-government, yet woman suffrage would ac- 
complish much more than this, and that it is a 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS MS 

beneficent measure from which right-minded 
men would be great gainers." 

THEY WILL SOLVE THE RACE 
QUESTION. — Women of both races are ad- 
vancing rapidly at the present time, and are 
fully alive to all that is for their betterment, and 
for the highest and best interest of the human 
race. 

Mrs. Susa Young Gates, the famous daughter 
of Brigham Young, says: "It is impossible that 
any intelligent person should be ignorant of the 
fact that women of all classes and in every civ- 
ilized country have become a force in the his- 
tory of nations. The most progressive are wide 
awake to the tremendous possibilities for them- 
selves as a sex and as individuals. But this is not 
all. Women of every class and color are rubbing 
the sleep out of their eyes and trying to catch a 
hint of the glorious color scheme which paints 
the dawn of this new era for womanhood." 

The age of frivolousness and butterflyism 
among them is fast passing away. They are now 
taking hold of the real, tangible things in their 
lives. They are fast becoming more indepen- 
dent, physically and mentally. This is true of 
the South as well as the North. No where can 
be found prettier and more robust and healthier 
white and colored w^omen than in the far South. 
It is apparent everywhere here that the pale^ 



344 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

babied, sickly, incubated white lady of Uncle 
Tom's Cabin is fast passing away. While the 
corset evil and other relics of barbarism have not 
yet disappeared, we are convinced that the laws 
of health will be better understood and observed 
as knowledge increases. 

As the old saying is, "time makes changes." 
Not only in the physical world is this true, but 
also in the mental, as regards beliefs and cus- 
torfis. That which one age finds absolutely re- 
pugnant is all the rage in the next. 

We are just giving hints, without examples 
being necessary, upon the rapid strides women 
are making, forward and upward, in every de- 
partment of life and activities, and what future 
results may bring forth. 

Women have done things that men hesitate to 
do, and they will do them again. The very fact 
that they are progressing so rapidly leads us to 
believe that they will, North and South, take a 
very prominent part in the settlement of the 
Negro question. All over the North and South 
there is a fair sprinkling of white women who 
have taken colored husbands-, many of whom are 
cultured and refined. At present these may be 
looked down upon, because of the color line and 
race prejudice; but remove this, and let it be- 
come respectable instead of a social crime to in- 
termarry with color, and a decided change will 



OR THE FADING LEOPARDS SPOTS 345 

take place, so much so, that not only the inde- 
pendent will find their affinity or life-mate 
among the colored, but the more timid as well. 
How horrid this sounds, but it is the truth. 

What the past fifty years could not possibly 
accomplish, the next fifty will easily bring about 
— viz., the removal of the race prejudice and the 
beginning the wholesale intermarriage with the 
enlightened, refined colored. And this the inde- 
pendent women of both races can and will large- 
ly accomplish. They will not only be instru- 
mental in but will be the means of solving the 
race question. We have not the least doubt 
about this. 

RACIAL PURITY— WHAT IS IT?— 
We hear much in these days from orators and 
magazine writers about keeping the races pure 
and making intermarriages of white with the 
colored races impossible ; but we know very well, 
and every fair-minded, intelligent man and 
woman knows, that where various races dwell 
together, no man-made laws, notwithstanding 
their severity, can make impossible, or of non- 
effect, the immutable law of dissemination, or of 
the mixing of the races. We are obliged to re- 
iterate this fact in this book. One of the severest 
brain-storms that infests the minds of many men 
and women of both races today, is the persistent 
cry for racial purity. 



346 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

What is race purity? 

The cocoanut-headed imp may cry for it, and 
he assuredly has tangible reasons. Reread our 
chapter on race integrity and compare with the 
following: 

Racial purity is this: A beautiful, strong, 
symmetrical body, a lofty intellect, and a pure, 
moral, humane and worshipful spirit. They who 
possess not this harmonious combination of char- 
acter must all likewise perish, regardless of the 
color of their skin. The "Harry Thaw char- 
acters" of the so-called aristocratic or "elect 
class," in both America and Europe, may be 
blue blooded and idiotic enough to represent a 
race, but not one to be eternally held up and 
lauded as pure, or to be proud of. 

God, in His marvelous and mysterious work- 
shop of nature, has ways and means by which 
and through which He tears down and builds up 
the various branches of the human family, re- 
gardless of the feeble sputterings of the foolish, 
and the harsh cries of the wicked, law-befuddled 
egotists. 

We have profound respect for all womankind, 
and we could not point the finger of accusation 
at any of them, knowing that the wrongs of soci- 
ety have always fallen most heavily upon her 
shoulders. But to show the reader here the abso- 
lute inability to cope with the social evil in the 



OR THE FADING LEOPARDS SPOTS 347 

South by the wrong, unnatural, damnable legis- 
lation of the present, we must, in this connection, 
speak of a matter that has been brought to our 
attention. Perhaps careful readers will think 
thai the following discovery ought to have been 
placed in the chapter on "Vice Versus Legal In- 
termarriage," or perhaps not have found a place 
in this book at all; but it is our object to weave 
closely together all evidences leading to certain 
conclusions in these chapters, so the reader, when 
he has finished, will have a clear conception of 
all that we have said, and be readv to render his 
own judgment. 

A HAD KlXnOI" MlXlXr;. -It was sev- 
eral years ago tliat a white clergyman in Cieorgia 
made a discovery over which people grew hyster- 
ical. He found that one of the great causes, and 
secret agencies, promcjting the mixing of the 
races, was illegitimate children born to white 
women, ami given by them to colored women 
to raise as colored children, in order that their 
shame might not be discovered. We have found 
that both white and colored children, thus born 
to white women, are disposed of in this manner. 

And here again we come face to face with the 
same paramount question: Shall illegitimate 
parentage in the South and elsewhere be dis- 
placed by lawful intermarriage and a legal pro- 
tection for both races or not? 



348 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

Who can resist God Almighty, when His 
voice comes from the heaving bosom of a 
wronged, outraged womanhood? The same 
political system that downs the Negro outrages 
and enslaves the southern white woman. 
■ THE GREATEST THING IS LOVE.— 
We have abundance of positive proof of cases 
where very respectable white girls and women, 
who unfortunately found affinities among col- 
ored men in the South, were led to commit hor- 
rible crimes because of the hellish customs of a 
depraved white race, which forbids the legal 
union of two hearts whose every throb beats in 
unison with all their desires, hopes and aspira- 
tions in life. We have further proof that there 
exists a love between some white men and col- 
ored women, and between some white women 
and colored men, who have found each other, that 
surpasses almost any love possible between men 
and women of the same race. There is a deep- 
seated love, an irresistible passion, which unites 
them, that positively cannot be experienced by 
any not absolutely dissimilar in their make-up. 
The greatest thing on earth is love. It is the 
agent that moves and rules all mankind, and 
bids him to humbly bow at the feet of woman- 
kind; and whether her skin be white or black. 
This same woman, who tempted Adam, has the 
charm to entice, the power to hold, the ability to 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARDS SPOTS 



349 




THREE TYPES OF COLORED WOMEN IN THE FAR SOUTH. 
Mental. Motive and Vital Temperament. 



350 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

lead the sons of Adam, if she will, into the high- 
way of progress for her own liberation, and the 
future good of the human race, or down into the 
pit of darkness and despair. 

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD.— Profes- 
sor Guy Carlton Lee of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, voices the same sentiment we have in 
mind when he says: "The man who searches 
efifect for cause must find his goal most often in 
the influence of a woman. Not always for good : 
that could not be. But it would seem that all 
that has endured has been for good, and that 
the evil which has been wrought by woman — and 
it has not been slight — has been ephemeral in 
all respects. I know of no enduring evil that 
can be traced to a woman as its source; but I 
know of no constant good which did not find 
either its beginning or its fostering in a woman's 
thought or work. Poppaea leaves but a name; 
Agrippina leaves an example. It may be true 
of men that the evil that they do lives after them, 
while the good is oft interred with their bones; 
but it is not true of women. Of course, there is 
a sense in which it is true — in the descent from 
mother to son of the spirit of the unrighteous 
mother; but even this would not seem to hold as 
a rule, and the effects are often modified by the 
influence of a love for a higher nature. The sum 
of woman's influence upon the destinies of the 



OR TTIE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 351 

world is good, the balance inclines steadily 
toward the best. Woman is the hope of the 
world." Maud Ballington Booth has said: "One 
tiling is certain. Whenever pain, sorrow, sick- 
ness or misfortune has laid its hand on man. 
he needs woman's touch to help him bear it." 

What has woman not done for temperance? 
\Miat she did for temperance she can do for the 
solution of the race question. It is not impossible 
that a Frances Willard. or, perchance, a Carrie 
Nation may arise and proclaim the social equal- 
ity of her cultured, colored husband and her 
pretty, intelligent children bv him?' How would 
she fare? just like a Joan of Arc, a Susan An- 
thony or a Carrie Nation. lUit, as in the case of 
.ill moral heroines, the human tide of thought, 
of sentiment, of belief, must finally turn and 
sweep all opposing forces before them, and 
usher in another era, another history-making 
epoch. We reiterate the fact that women have 
done tilings that men hesitate to do, and they will 
do them again. 

Gentle reader, what a crying need! What a 
tremendous opportunity! What a field of con- 
quest for the fearless, believing, brave women 
•)f both races! 

Two sure can who both are free. 
Though a color line divides them, 



352 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Join their hands and hearts in work^ 
That none can do besides them. 
Why not smash that line for good? 
It's all that now divides them. 
Let them boldly do what's right, 
Though friend and foe derides them. 

Ice of prejudice must break, 

Though worldly people despise them; 

With God, home, and native land. 

Who is there that defies them? 

It's silly to spurn a love 

Twixt colored and white — God made them, 

"What God hath joined let no man part," 

Let life's sweet days just fade them. 

AN APPEAL TO NOBLE WOMAN- 
HOOD. — We appeal to the noble womanhood 
of our white race. We pray that her sympathetic 
heart may be moved in behalf of the oppressed, 
despised, wronged colored sister in the South, 
who is struggling up the thorny path to the 
higher standard of purit}^ and virtue; but which 
path is frequented by so many wolves in sheep- 
skin to detain her, deceive her, entrap her and 
then cast her aside as worthless, with blasted 
hopes and a broken heart. We appeal to her to 
obliterate the color line in behalf of the girlhood 
of the Negro race, the buds of promise, the 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 355 

future woman. How can she rise to the level she 
aspires, and we hope for, as long as old laws and 
customs pronounce her inferior, debase her and 
make her the victim of, and a by-word for, all 
men. She it is who rocks the cradle of the race, 
may we not heed well how the cradle of ten mil- 
lion and more people is rocked? She it is who 
holds the destiny of a future great people in her 
hands, may we not take those hands into our own 
and say — my sister? It was Miss Sarah Forten 
who addressed a touching appeal to the white 
women to co-operate with an organization of 
Anti-Slavery Free Women of America in 1831, 
and the same is appliable todav. She wrote: 

"We are sisters. God has truly said 
That of one blood all nations 

He has made. 
O Christian woman! in a Christian land. 
Canst thou unblushinglv read 

This great command? 
Suffer the wrongs which wring our inmost heart, 
To draw one throb of pity on thy part? 
Our skins may differ, but from thee we claim 
A sister's privilege and a sister's name." 

FACTS ARE STUBBORN.— Facts are 
stubborn things to encounter. It was the white 
man who took advantage of the poor, enslaved 
Negro woman from the day slavery was intro- 

23 



354 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




AX APPEAL TO TIIlv WORT.D. 

There are now six million men, women and children liviing in 
this country the direct offspring of white and black. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 355- 

duced to this hour. Emancipation did not check 
him or emancipate her. What he could not do 
by force he has done by cunning. And this one 
fact stands today without a parallel, that the 
African woman has gone with the white man 
through an enforced vale of tears, degradation 
and shame, and has not once shrunk from the 
care, responsibility and duty of rearing, to the 
best of her ability, her illegitimate children by 
him. She unreservedly deserves the laurels of a 
superior womanhood for so faithfully and lov- 
ingly, under the most tryingcircumstances, caring 
for her white babies and thereby improving her 
race. She has done more than her duty. Her 
daughters now demand a legal union with their 
white paramours, and this demand shall not long 
be disregarded. To back out now is not only 
cowardly on his part, but an abominable, un- 
pardonable crime against God and the colored 
race of which his children are a part. 

Pass laws against miscegenation; pile up your 
infamy against a wronged progeny by such bar- 
barous procedure; drone to sleep the last pang 
of conscience, and envelop the individual in 
holy sanctimony; but the glaring evidence will 
not decamp, and a cure for a moral disease will 
not be found. What then the cure? 
Confess your sins and own up. 
How? 



356 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

By legalizing intermarriage between the races 
in the entire country, and by the removal of race 
prejudice from your colored children. Tens of 
thousands of these children in every hamlet, 
every town, every city and obscure corner in the 
South demand this. These words we address 
to him who is the enemy of moral progress and 
social purity, in the advocacy of race integrity, 
thereby promoting the pernicious practice of 
illicit union and illegal children. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 357 

CHAPTER XVI 

SCIENTIFIC ADAPTATION OF WHITE AND COLOR 

A SUPERBLY MATED PAIR.— A su- 
perbly mated pair is well illustrated in J. Roland, 
Ph. D., a slight, pale, nervous Mental Tempera- 
ment, and Rosaline, a strong, dark Vital Tem- 
perament. He is vitally deplete, and consequently 
rendered powerless, physically, to sustain his 
large, fine-grained, sensitive brain; while hers is 
rather coarse, sluggish, slow to act, easygoing, 
but with considerable latent powers. In his 
presence her strong animal magnetism attracts 
him. He is vitalized, strengthened and enam- 
oured powerfully by being with her, while she 
is equally benefited by him. He draws her up 
to a higher mental plane ; causes her to refine her 
habits, increase her mentation, and build up a 
finer brain fibre in her thick African skull. This 
makes her more attractive generally, and espec- 
ially to him, as her eye grows brighter, and her 
whole physiognomy glows with the intense in- 
terest she takes in their daily afifairs with each 
other. She draws him down to her. He absorbs 
considerable of her surplus animal magnetism, 
which builds up his wasted frame, and causes 
new blood to course through his body as a conse- 
quence. 



358 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

His fine brain becomes more active, and he 
some day discovers himself performing an unus- 
ual amount of mental and physical labor, such 
as he has not done in years. Both are immensely 
benefited by being scientifically mated to each 
other. Although he has all the signs of weak 
lungs and general debility, he is a man of con- 
siderable talent. Look at that high, protruding 
forehead, with the strong indication of large 
faculties of Comparison and Causality, the rea- 
soning faculties of the mind. Also see the per- 
ceptive faculties well developed, and the con- 
structive also well in the lead. This makes him 
a mechanical genius, a profound thinker with 
literary ability, and a very useful member of 
society. He is deficient in vitality. His back- 
head shows him to be more feminine than mas- 
culine in general characteristics, therefore he 
has strong love for children and home; but his 
procreative functions are too feeble to have any, 
save with one with an over-surplus of the animal 
nature to draw him to her and arouse and 
strengthen his enfeebled sexuality. 

A MISMATED EXAMPLE.— As J. 
Roland, Ph. D., is naturally an attractive, re- 
fined gentleman, he would have had no difficulty 
in gaining the attention and finally also a kind of 
deeper regard and feeling in the heart of the fine, 
sensitive, Mrs. Dr. Summer. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



m) 




ndy-Ph.n. 



360 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

Now for the sake of an argument, let us sup- 
pose that like likes like, and that he, as many 
other men of his type do, believed himself in love 
with her, regardless of their incompatibility, and 
proposed to her and she accepted him, as thou- 
sands before her have done and will do again. 
* * * They get married. Bells are tolled, 
friends wish them a prosperous, happy journey 
through life; none wish them a happy prosper- 
ous lot of children. That would be immodest, 
vulgar, something to be ashamed of — a shower 
of rice and old shoes, and they are gone. In 
just one week he wishes himself back to his 
bachelor quarters, or something worse; and she 
just wishes she were dead! But then they are 
married, and must play married before the 
world, and make-believe. They are in this case 
too sensible not to remain friends, even real 
chums; but that is all. There could positively 
be no amatory attraction between these strong, 
Mental Temperaments, consequently no children 
can bless their union; and were it possible that 
a few were born, they would very likely be 
angels before their maturity, or live a little 
longer, a wretched martyr's life, paying the full 
penalty for their parents' sins. This is the old, 
old story of mismating, either through ignorance 
or else coolly, deliberately planned for conveni- 
ence on the part of one or both. It would be 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



361 




362 HOL^rS RACE ASSIMILATION 

infinitely better if such men and women as these 
would remain single rather than join in such 
mock-matrimony. 

ALMOST A COLORED VENUS.— Let us 
take a look at Rosaline. She is a colored matron, 
two-thirds Negro, of a typical physiognomy. 
Her face beams with her warm, lovable, sunny 
disposition. She is not highly educated; is no 
college graduate, but has a fair knowledge of 
the common English branches, taught in a col- 
ored village school such as we find in many parts 
of the South. Physically she would almost pass 
for a colored Venus, but not quite. She is a 
trifle too stout, and displays a little more of the 
vital or animal nature in her make-up than a 
Venus should; yet being so superbly sexed, this 
extra supply of the vital forces is no fault. Her 
waist is rather short and her limbs straight and 
beautifully curved, with her calfs rather high, 
disclosing the well-defined mark of her Negro 
origin; but this does not detract from, or mar 
the physical beauty of her powerful, well-shaped 
legs. Her arms are a magnificent network of 
muscles, displaying their latent strength at every 
movement; yet they are not ugly, though they 
remind one of masculinity, their strong outlines 
are well supported and superbly adapted to her 
body. Her chest is deep, and she has an ample 
breathing capacity that has never been cramped 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



363 




Sarr) Slic^l^, 



364 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

to any extent by the corset, and this, too, indi- 
cates a powerful constitution. Her breasts are a 
bit large, but they are not fleshy or dormant, but 
perfectly adapted to supply her young with an 
abundance of good, rich milk. The kinky mass 
of her beautiful, glossy hair has been so ar- 
ranged as to reveal her feminine qualities, 
phrenologically. To use a homely English 
phrase, she is not so "low natured" as prejudiced 
minds would make us believe. Look at that fine 
backhead. There is no depravity, brutishness or 
degeneracy there. To phrenological scientists this 
head indicates everything that is so dear, so holy, 
so divine, so worshipful to the soul of every good 
man in every good woman, of whatever color or 
race. It makes one think of "Home sweet 
home," even were it nothing more than "One 
little hut among de bushes, one dat I love." 
There is something divine — the altar of all hu- 
man affections, true and good — located there. 
"Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may 
roam, Be it ever so humble there's no place like 
home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow 
us there. Which seek through the world, is not 
met with elsewhere." It is a positive truth, such 
divine attributes of womanhood, of motherhood, 
are not met with elsewhere. The "Charm from 
the skies" which hallows all mankind there, is 
found nowhere else save in a true home, where 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 365 

mother's love (of whatever race or color), 
mother's sacrifice, mother's devotion to her fam- 
ily, are well nigh supreme. 

No government can build on a safer founda- 
tion than this, and none can endure who do not 
thus build. Intense love for children, she for 
him, he for her and both for the spot in which 
they dwell, are the only incentives for the exist- 
ence of any home. This colored woman has all 
three strongly marked in her makeup. She could 
love most any man, even if only for the love of 
children, but all men would by no means be 
scientifically adapted to her, either physically 
or mentally. 

EXAMPLESOFPHYSICALAND MEN- 
TAL DEGENERACY.— Supposing Rosaline 
would have mated with a Negro like Sam 
Slick, what would have been the result? Both 
are passionate. He would not have raised her 
up to a higher moral and mental plane, because 
he is lower than she. He would even have 
pulled her down, and caused her to be more ex- 
travagant in the indulgence of the animal pas- 
sion. It would have proven a calamity to this 
sweet-faced colored woman, as it has to other 
thousands before her. There is no greater slav- 
ery on earth than that endured by the wife of 
the lazy, shiftless, good-for-nothing black repro- 
bate of the South today. - And to her children 



366 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



with him it would, indeed, have been a dire mis- 
fortune! They would have been lower than 
both, mentally and physically, in the scale of 
humanity. They would have been more animal 
than human, as far as the social passions are con- 
cerned. Take a careful look at Little Sam, he 




is the product of just such a union. He is a 
rapist, a sneak-thief; in short, a Negro degen- 
erate. He is but one of thousands, born in the 
South every year, the result of criminal and de- 
generate unions among themselves, and with 
others mismated. 



OR THE FADING LEOEARD'S SPOTS 367, 

We have intimated elsewhere that in his na- 
tive or primitive conditions in Africa, the Negro 
can procreate without any marked deterioration 
in his offspring. An instance has come under 
the writer's observation where a brother and sis- 
ter became separated during the war, grew to 
manhood and womanhood, met and married in 
the East, and after a number of years, when they 
had a large family of children together, dis- 
covered through investigation that they were re- 
lated. Their children were as good as any, but 
this proves nothing. Many instances have been 
found where brothers and sisters produced as 
fine offspring together, as they did with others 
not related to them ; but the American Negro has 
undergone such a process of evolution, and has 
been crossed to such an extent with the Cauca- 
sian, that careful selections are of far more im- 
portance among them, than among any race of 
people on earth. And it is not improper 
to say here, that Little Sam belongs to 
that class of Negroes, absolutely unfit to pro- 
create with any kind, of any race. And to 
prevent such from further demoralizing the hu- 
man race, it is proper and just, in the sight of 
God and man, that they be rendered sterile. Do 
not misunderstand us. We do not mean that 
they should have this inflicted upon them as a 
punishment for crimes perpetrated. Scientifi- 



368 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 369 

cally speaking, they are not guilty of any crime 
committed, no matter how shocking or horrible. 
They take to certain crimes as naturally as a 
duck does to water. They may hang them, roast 
them alive, or by degrees hack and slice them 
up, as a butcher does a carcass; as a mob of poor, 
deluded creatures has sometimes done in this 
highly civilized country (?) ; yet as far as we 
phrenological scientists are concerned, there is 
no more reason, no more justice, in such horri- 
ble, outrageous procedure than there is in deal- 
ing out justice to a duck, by cutting ofif her head, 
because she persists in taking to the pond in the 
back lot. As all others, these beings are creatures 
of circumstances. They are not what they are by 
choice but by nature; the result of ignorance on 
the part of mankind. 

HOW MUCH BETTER NOT THUS 
BORN. — A great deal of training from early 
childhood of the undeveloped moral faculties 
would be of marked benefit to them, as a con- 
stant supply of blood to these faculties, or that 
portion of the brain where they are located, de- 
creases the amount of stimulation to that part 
which is abnormally developed, and, conse- 
quently, decreases this intense, undesirable men- 
tal operation; but this scientific training is not 
intelligently given, and so no results may be 
looked for in that direction to any marked extent. 



370 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

And in case this method of treatment would be 
adopted generally, the blessings thus conferred 
upon mankind would after all not be much 
greater than at present, as the mischief of this 
class cannot be curbed by all mental gymnastics 
within the reach of this or any other age. Where 
it has been tried the old thing has cropped out 
again in such creatures of misfortune, even in 



remote generations. 



It is much easier to stop up a leak in a boat 
than to bail out the water as fast as it comes in. 
Some children, of every race and color, thus un- 
fortunately developed will undoubtedly always 
be born ; but how much better, how much more 
humane not to let more be born than is absolutely 
necessarv, to grow up, commit a social crime and 
then be imprisoned or executed by the people 
who allow this condition of things to exist from 
lack of knowledge? 

PHRENOLOGICAL LOCATION OF 
THE SOCIAL EVIL.— Our lamented friend, 
Prof. L. A. Vaught, the author of "Vaught's 
Practical Character Reader," has so well illus- 
trated this point, that we are induced to give his 
drawing and timely explanation, such as we have 
in minc'i. He says: "The social evil is a fact. 
Many good and learned people are trying to 
check, modify or suppress it. Their intentions 
are good. Thev shoot at it with tongue and pen. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



371 



That is, they suppose they shoot at it. They 
shoot, but, unfortunately, they do not shoot any 
more definitely at it than if they stepped out of 
their homes upon a dark night when the moon 
was down, electric lights out, and shot into space 




HOW REFORMERS MISS THE CENTER 
OF VICE. 

in hope of hitting a burglar. Why don't they 
draw a bead on it? Answer: They do not know 
the location of it. They do not know the nature 
of it. They do not know the source of it. They 
do not know that it is a single element of the 



372 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

mind. They do not know when nor where to 
commence to correct it. They ought to know. 
They can know. They can know exactly. They 
can know very soon after the babe is born. They 
can, if they will, learn the location of the faculty 
in the brain. Observe the illustration. Not one 
of the marksmen has hit the 'bull's eye.' Every 
shot has missed. What a deplorable waste of 
time, energy and arrows! They have hit the in- 
tellect, which is in front, the moral faculties, 
which are in the tophead, pride and vanity, 
which are in the back crown of the head, but not 
a single one has even come close to the exact 
source of the evil. They have not even crippled 
it. How could they cripple it till they hit it? 
How can they hit it till they know where it is? 
It is located in the little brain directly back of 
the two bony prominences that may be found 
and felt behind the ears. When very strong in 
child, woman or man, this region will be decid- 
edly full or convex in form. It is immediately 
below a fissure that runs horizontally above it, 
and partly separates the little brain from the big 
brain, or, in other words, the cerebellum from 
the cerebrum. Its name is Amativeness. We 
now have it 'spotted!' " 

Does it not occur to you, dear reader, that the 
brute for brute method so long resorted to, when 
taken from this sound scientific viewpoint, is but 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 373 

^the aftermath of a savage nature, the eye for eye 
and tooth for tooth system of injustice, practiced 
in the past ages of barbarism? 

Can you justly criticise us for the strong con- 
demnation of such inhuman outrages as are per- 
petrated in this country upon such unfortunate, 
irresponsible beings? How much more rational 
would it be, do you not admit, to inaugurate the 
scientific system we expound in this book, and 
hit the "bull's eye," and render unnecessary all 
mob violence and their debasing, demoralizing 
efifcct upon our civilization? 

OFFSPRING OF RIGHT CROSSING.— 
Now, let us resume the actual occurrence with 
regard to J. Roland, Pii. D., and Rosaline, his 
mate. Roland had a fair knowledge of scientific 
adaptation and the assimilation by amalgama- 
tion of the American Hamitc, and also realized 
that, for his own personal benefit, it was a wise 
step to affiliate with a dark complexioned, strong, 
robust maiden; and he found in Rosaline his 
affinity. What was the result with regard to 
their offspring? In Master Roland we have a 
fine likeness of their oldest son, and the young- 
est are still better. Notice the large mental 
capacity of this child, and the ample physique 
to sustain it — a fine large brain, on a fine large 
body to support it. His physiognomy is more 
like that of his mother than his father, and, in- 



374 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



deed, we find that this is nearly always the case 
in such crossings; yet we can clearly discern the 
broad, high forehead of his father in this lad, as 
well as his chin; while the mouth and nose are 
more like his mother's. If you will notice the 




receding forehead of the mother, and compare 
it with the high, broad one of the son ; and could 
then also compare the body of the poor father 
with that of the child, you could not help but 
marvel at the wonderful improvement Nature 
has here wrought in this fortunate boy. Fortu- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 375 

nate? Alas, he is only a "little nigger" in the 
eyes of America today. His ability is unrecog- 
nized. 

In little Iraline we have drawn a good like- 
ness of their daughter. What a ravishing beauty, 




what a magnificent specimen of human anatomy! 
Such a physiognomy as artists should rave over. 
Just enough of the Negro tinge to make her so 
cute and lovable— and, indeed, she is lovable. 
She has a fine feminine head and figure to make 
her so. Some day she will make an ideal wife 



376 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

for the right kind of man, if her education as 
well as her fascinating beauty is not neglected. 

But what are you leading to? Call a "nigger" 
beautiful? Precisely so. 

Science knows no prejudice, is not biased; 
ffives credit where credit is due. 

Produce your white charmers, and compare 
them with thousands of these dark beauties, and 
let science determine the best equipped, the best 
fitted for maternity. That is the "rub," that is 
the paramount question. 

Maternal fitness makes all girls charming, all 
women attractive to all men, without it none. 

OFFSPRING ALONE CONSTITUTES 
TRUE MARRIAGE.— You say we are wrong, 
that mental ability, mental accomplishments, too, 
attract. So they do; but mental attraction alone 
knows no sex; is simply cool admiration in both 
men and women among themselves and in each 
other. Feminine qualities, maternal fitness in 
woman, alone can render her truly charming 
and magnetic to the opposite sex. Therefore it 
now follows that only maternal and paternal fit- 
ness should constitute true marriage. It is a 
natural law that only man disobeys. All ani- 
mals thus fitted mate only, none others. All men 
and women not thus equipped cannot enter into 
true marriage, but only mere partnerships, which 
ought to be made solvent by the parties con- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 377 

cerned, should they wish to permanently sepa- 
rate at any time, like any other partnership. 

When offspring alone constitutes true mar- 
riage, no illegitimate children will be born, and 
every man will be compelled to stick to his affin- 
ity, of whatever color or race. This, as we have 
just intimated, is in harmony with the procrea- 
tive law, the highest and noblest act of Nature; 
and we believe that no people or country can 
reach its highest state of civilization before they 
heed this, the highest of all God's command- 
ments. 

Talk about the possibility of making the 
marriage and divorce laws of this country uni- 
form. There is no ground upon which such 
uniformity is possible, save that just stated. 
When offspring alone constitutes true marriage, 
and all other unions are recognized by law as 
mere partnerships, this important question will 
soon settle itself rightly. 

Take heed, all w^ho have the best interest of 
mankind at heart. Let not this generation pass 
away before public sentiment demands this ra- 
tional change in our marriage relations. 

We have spoken of this here, especially for the 
benefit of the colored women of the South. We 
feel as though we w^ould like to plead for them 
in this regard, for we know only too well what 
vast benefit they would derive from the inaug- 



378 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

uration of such marriage reform. And would 
it not also prove equally beneficial to all classes 
of whites? The present marriage and divorce 
system of our civilization is a mortal stain that 
ought to be eradicated. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 379 

CHAPTER XVII 

BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLES ILLUSTRATED 

THE MATING OF SUPERIOR DIS- 
SIMILARITIES.— Mrs. Dr. Summer had a 
knowledge of scientific mating, and abhorred the 
vulgar sentiment prevalent among a certain de- 
graded populace in this country, concerning the 
eligibility of the upper class of colored people. 
She, like other women of advanced ideas and 
large mental capacity, believed that the woman 
who can leave strong, well developed children, 
mentally and physically, by affiliating with a 
race of marked dissimilarities, bestows upon 
mankind the highest and noblest gift. She had 
a taste for the dark, vital, powerful masculinity. 
She could have found one of such characteris- 
tics among the whites, but repudiated all preju- 
dice and decided in favor of a colored gentle- 
man, Mr. Summer, who attended school in her 
native town in the North. She met him, was 
attracted, and found that she had not only met 
her intellectual equal, but also an ideal father of 
her future children, although they would be 
tinged with dark blood. Prohibit such a splen- 
did union? Nonsense. Behold! what hath 
God wrought? Her children, to be sure, are 



380 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



dark-skinned, curly-headed, pretty little mis- 
chiefs. They are remarkably fine; they will be 
the progenitors of other fine people of another, 




ummef. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 381 

greater age as the world moves on. Far better 
these with new blood, new affinities, and a 
definite mission of sublime importance before 
them, than none, or a puny few, with no future 
of any consequence. 

In Master Summer we have a good likeness of 
their oldest child ; and this portrait speaks for it- 
self. He is fine beyond computation. Now, the 
father, Dr. Summer, of the child is a true mu- 
latto. His mother was a well-proportioned 
black, though simple woman, of whom we pro- 
duce a drawing in Betsey; while his father was 
a southern planter, of whom we also produce a 
likeness in Summerfield, whose father came to 
Alabama in the early days, and belonged to the 
sturdv, old Virginia, aristocratic stock. 

THREE GENERATIONS.— Little Master 
Summer's grandfather was a true type of the old 
southern aristocracy (a defender of his race), 
while his grandmother was a black servant in 
his grandfather's household. We therefore here 
produce the third generation. In the first cross- 
ing the mother w^as a full Negress and "the father 
a full Caucasian, w^hile in the second the father 
was one-half white and the mother a full Cauca- 
sian; which makes this boy two-thirds white, 
and as fine a specimen of physical and intellect- 
ual boyhood as can be found among any people, 
of any race. On his father's side he inherited 



382 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




ummef. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



383 



the strong, vital or animal qualities of his black 
grandmother, and the fine, sensitive, cunning, 
intellectual characteristics of his white grand- 
father; and on his mother's side he obtained the 
strong moral and religious faculties, which, al- 




©tae^y. 



together, give him the fine proportioned head, 
so admirably balanced. He is not a genius, 
which is invariably one prominently developed 
in the genius producing faculties. For instance, 
like J. Roland, whose progeny with Rosaline 
inherited them, and provided them with power- 



384 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



ful, tenacious qualities, capable of an enormous 
amount of mental work, as so well illustrated in 
Master Roland. In Master Summer we have a 
character of substantial qualities, so well bal- 
anced mentally and physically, that he will live 




i{TJfi)et'fie1(i, 



to a ripe old age, and fill a place in life of a 
religious and educational character with great 
credit. His father prepared for the ministry, 
but while he is a fine logical speaker he has not 
the spiritual and moral qualities his son inher- 
ited from his mother, consequently he would 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



385 



have made a better lawyer than he is preacher. 
Timely phrenological advice would have pre- 
vented this error in the choice of his vocation. 

Look at the likeness of the black mother, 
Betsey, and then at her son and grandson, Master 




Summer; and if you are at all cognizant of men- 
tal development you will observe the phenom- 
enal advancement in the scale of human intellect, 
without the slightest physical loss, but rather 
gain. 

Now, this process need never deteriorate, but 

25 



386 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 

on the contrary can still undergo greater im- 
provements in the succeeding generations. If 
the next crossing is again with a white woman 
in Master Summer's case; and if this woman is, 
like his mother, of a Nervous-Mental Tempera- 
ment, their children will be capable of still 




greater mental accomplishment, provided the 
law of sex-amalgamation is not violated. These 
should then fall back on their grandmothers 
side, and again intermarry with intelligent mu- 
lattoes or others of a dark, Vital Temperament. 
This would then again produce offspring like 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



387 



their grandfather, Master Summer, only a great 
deal finer, both mentally and physically. Thus 
the process can be continued for a number of 
generations, until the Negro is entirely assim- 
ilated bv this scientific method of amalgamation. 




THE PROGENY OF THE UNRELI- 
ABLE FATHER.— In McNay we have a 
Scotchman of a Vital Temperament and light 
complexion. He is a large, powerful man of 
extravagant affections and plodding character. 
He married Clara McNay, a colored maiden, 
a trifle more white than black, yet quite dark. 



388 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 



She is very nicely mated to him; being rather 
tall and slender, yet not too slight. She has a 
beautiful form for her type of womanhood. She 
is rather short waisted, with broad hips and long 
well-developed limbs. She would not be called 
a beauty by many men, yet she is not homely. 




She is of a type we often meet throughout the 
South, and which is in a measure quite charm- 
ing, and belongs, generally, to a class of the 
most reliable and industrious people, therefore 
this class has been most desired by white men to 
affiliate with in various sections of the country. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 389 

She has eyes that are remarkably expressive and 
magnetic. Such eyes "haunt" McNay night 
and day when they have once looked into his 
half-closed amatory optics. He is not a very re- 
liable husband, as his affections are easily trans- 
ferred from one charmer to another, yet such 
eyes will control him and keep his affections in 
the "straight and narrow way" better than any 
other human power. Those eyes also indicate a 
soulful character, active intellect, and a reliable,' 
faithful wife and mother. Their children are 
exceptionally fine. They exhibit a great deal of 
their father's vitality, and also a fair share of 
their mother's soulful characteristics. They are 
better than either. 

We give scientific reasons: He is unreliable 
in his affections, they being mainly of the ama- 
tory sort, and he is strong in imparting these 
undesirable qualities to his offspring. She op- 
poses them on her side by her powerful conjugal 
and parental love, which are very strong in many 
of her class of women of color. And, indeed, 
were it not, she would not be the possessor of 
such open, bright, pretty eyes. 

All her love is wrapped up in him and the 
children by him; and these strong affections are 
bound to be transmitted to her children, while 
his superior intellect is also well marked, conse- 
quently, this produces the beautiful blending, 



390 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

perfect amalgamation in their superior posterity, 
as illustrated in Master McNay. This boy re- 
sembles his father in the strong chin, powerful 
jaw, neck and body generally, and also has his 
superior mental development, but he resembles 
his mother (beside the African strain) in his 
open eye, indicating the same characteristics she 
possesses — viz., the soulful, spiritual qualities, 
and higher moral attributes, that his sensual 
father does not possess. 

Thus we could give scores of examples that 
have come under our observation, where unruly, 
or rather immoral men affiliated with the purer 
class of girls of color, without transmitting all 
their undesirable qualities; and in such cases we 
have also found that the mental capabilities were 
invariably improved in the progeny of such 
crossings. On the other hand, we have found 
that a low type of white man, thus crossing with 
a woman of a low moral nature, generally trans- 
mit all their vicious characteristics to their off- 
spring, which makes a very undesirable class, be- 
ing in some instances minus all that is most de- 
sirable in a man or woman. The same fact is 
applicable to vicious, immoral whites; and in 
both cases such unions should be prohibited by 
means advocated in this work. We give reasons 
why such crossings result in inferior progeny, in 
the succeeding chapter. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 391 



CHAPTER XVIII 

LOVE, OR SEX-AALALGAMATION 

HOW SUPERIOR CHILDREN ARE 
BORN.— We have spoken of the harmonious 
attachment between Roland, Rosaline and others 
in preceding chapters, and the admirable results 
attained in their progeny. Can these results be 
alone attributed to the fact that they are naturally 
adapted to each other? W^e would not be fair 
with our readers if we said, yes. There is an- 
other cause, another law which alone can, in 
connection with natural affiliation, produce the 
best and most perfect offspring obtainable; and 
that is a Right Love-State. A blighted, im- 
paired or passive love-state in one or both par- 
ents produces inferior offspring, while a right 
state produces superior; and the more perfect 
and harmonious love is maintained between well 
adapted parents, the more perfection and su- 
periority may be found in their children. This 
all-important fact we wish the reader to bear in 
mind, in connection with the assimilation by 
amalgamation of the Afro-American. Children 
of parents of whom one is colored and who are 
in a loving-state, are harmonious and homo- 



392 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

geneous, and invariably better than their parents, 
because they inherit the excellent qualities of 
both; while those who are imperfectly blended 
are both inferior to their parents and self-con- 
tradictory. 

To illustrate this point, we may say that par- 
ents can be likened unto two metals, partially or 
improperly melted and thrown together. The 
result is imperfect amalgamation; leaving all of 
one metal in one place, and all of the other in 
another. Excessive passions on his side, and 
passivity on hers, render their progeny mostly 
like him, and consequently there is no marked 
improvement, and vice versa. But if both are 
thoroughly roused, and in a fine, loving condi- 
tion, but not sensual, the magnificent blending, 
the absolute oneness of themselves, wall be fully 
transmitted to their offspring; and thus a su- 
perior child, mentally and physically, is the re- 
sult. We have observed this fact in thousands 
of cases; both in the crossings of the colored and 
whites, and in the mulatto and other fairer ones 
with the dark and black, as well as in two whites. 
You can find hundreds of families, where either 
mother or father is dark or black, in which one 
child may be beautifully blended, and, conse- 
quently, superior to its parents; another may be 
black like one of its parents, and mentally in- 
ferior, but physically superior; still another may 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 393 

be fair like one of its parents, and mentally 
superior, but physically inferior. Now, it is 
said that this one takes after its father, that one 
after its mother, and another after both. But, 
why? For no other reason than that just stated. 
If parents, of whatever race or color, would ob- 
serve this creative law of amalgamation, and 
enter, and remain perpetually in a loving, blend- 
ing, harmonious state; and not fuss, wound, in- 
flame, impair and deaden their love, during the 
years in which their children are born, what a 
marvelous evolutionary process would not the 
colored as well as the w^hite race undergo. 

Inferior parents often have superior children, 
while superior ones have inferior. This is be- 
cause the former often maintain a lovable con- 
dition, while the latter wound, inflame and disap- 
point their love-state most often; because the 
higher organized the more sensitive, and the 
easier impaired. While parents, who live in a 
beautiful blended state of love, transmit all the 
highest and noblest qualities of their characters 
to their children, just the reverse is true of those 
who live in a sensual, crabby, sour, disappointed 
love-state. 

All lovers, all parents, take heed! Do not 
cheat yourselves and the world out of the high- 
est and noblest that Nature has in store for you. 
This is holy ground ; they who tread thereon 



394 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

must be pure, sanctified and elevated, or become 
debased and debasers — robbers of virtue, hounds 
of impurity, blasphemers, thieves, liars, bums 
and cut-throats — all, all have their origin here. 

There may be a blemish, a weakness, a Maw 
in your character; "cut it out" by getting into a 
pure, sweet, blended love-state with your life- 
companion, with your lover, before you trans- 
mit such a blemish or weak tendency to your off- 
spring. No human being has a moral right be- 
fore God to propagate, who is not thus prepared 
for this holy office. Unfortunate development 
of the mental faculties (or more correctly speak- 
ing brain organs in children) may thus be 
averted, and only thus, as well as many physical 
defects. 

In the present transmutation of the Negro 
race in America from the primitive to the higher 
realms of civilization, we must heed the warn- 
ing and see the impending dangers about us, and 
seek salvation from both physical and spiritual 
bondage, in a wiser and better progeny. 

WHO IS AND WHO IS NOT MAR- 
RIED. — We reiterate the fact that "like pro- 
duces like," and that no human being has a 
moral right to propagate, who is not sanctified 
and prepared for this holy office. No married 
couple, though married a thousand times by the 
laws of the land is married by the laws of God, 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 395 

if their union is a loveless one; and they commit 
a crime against society, and against Nature's 
God, if they bring loveless, inferior children 
into the world. They have no more right to 
propagate than the vilest criminal. When they 
cohabit they commit adultery, and their chil- 
dren are born bastards. Only those who har- 
monize and are in a right love-state can cohabit 
without committing a sin against Nature's God, 
and against their own offspring. Marriage 
ceremonies have little to do with it. Those 
morally corrupt cannot approach the sweet, 
sacred union of true wedlock; of a right sex- 
amalgamation. When love ceases true marriage 
is at an end. Nature recognizes marriage only 
in love, and ofifspring is the culmination of love 
and marriage. Nature repudiates and condemns 
marriage, or the union of the sexes without love, 
in the production of an inferior progeny. Mar- 
riage without love is a legal prostitution. It 
contradicts the Divine command — viz., to be 
"one flesh" and to multiply. 

First, the twain must be made one-flesh — love; 
and secondly, the fruit of love must be realized 
in the child. This is the beginning, the aim 
and end of so-called marriage in the economy of 
physical life. 

For the above reasons we believe that the mat- 
ing of the sexes is a Divine institution, because 



396 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Love is Divine in that it demands offspring — 
marriage may not. 

RIGHT AND WRONG SEX-AMALGA- 
MATION. — Why was not more of the unde- 
sirable mental condition of McNay, in chapter 
seventeen, transmitted to his son, Master Mc- 
Nay in the same chapter? Answer: Because 
Clara McNay, his mate, was so completely 
enamored with him, and her higher personality 
was so admirably blended with his, that a per- 
fect amalgamation took place. Had not this 
been the case, the reverse would have been true. 
Master McNay would have inherited all of his 
father's animal passions as well as those of his 
mother's and he would, in^ consequence, have 
been a very undesirable character to run at large. 

What about the statement made in a preceding 
chapter, that if Rosaline had mated with Sam 
Slick, the resulting offspring would have been 
like Little Sam? Are we sure of our assertion? 

Yes, absolutely sure. Hundreds of observa- 
tions confirm this statement, and these drawings, 
taken from life by the author, are living testi- 
monies. How else could so many degenerates 
be born and exist among these people and the 
whites? There certainly is a cause for every 
effect, and in this regard it is especially true. 
Rosaline and Sam Slick could not produce the 
right temperature necessary for a complete 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



397 



fusion. Their excessive passions produce an 
''over-heated" state, and consequently burn out 
all the higher mental qualities, and only transmit 
these in a weak, flickering quantity, while all 
that part which pertains to the cunning, shrewd, 
deceitful, revengeful, lustful, is intensely exag- 
gerated and flogged into abnormal action. The 
very fact of their being together lashes their ani- 
mal passions into abnormal, inflamed action; 
lowers all their desires, and the resulting issue 
cannot be but unmanageable and fiery, vicious 
and low. They experience no spiritual cohabit- 
ing with the physical. We give ample proof in 
this work to confirm this fact; and this is the sole 
reason why we advocate the sterilization of the 
vicious, uncontrollable, criminal and degenerate 
class. There is no other eflicicnt method to elim- 
inate this crowning evil among all the races of 
man ; if there is we would like to know it. What 
else can we do with the progeny of the absolutely 
unfit, that are crowding in upon us, and are con- 
taminating the masses of this great age? Be- 
tween Roland and Rosaline there is scarcely a 
shadow of possibility for criminal issue, under 
ordinary conditions. With him Rosaline's pas- 
sions are prolonged; and thus a complete and 
beautiful amalgamation alone can and has pro- 
duced the many admirable types of half and 
quarter breeds, and others of African origin we 
meet with and so often refer to in this work. 



398 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATIOX 

THE LOSS OF STAMINA ATTRIB- 
UTED TO UNNATURAL CONDI- 
TIONS. — Now, it has so often been stated, and 
at times by men of some authority, that the 
Negro, when crossing with whites the resulting 
oft'spring, or those further remote from the Afri- 
can, lose their native stamina. In connection with 
what we have said above, this subject naturally 
presents itself to us, and we are no doubt ex- 
pected to say what we have found to be facts, 
in this regard. What we shall say on this so- 
called important question will be short, to the 
point, free from bias — the result of careful 
study. We shall not juggle words or waste valu- 
able space. In the first place, we do not deem 
this question of such paramount importance as 
may be supposed. Prejudice has here as every- 
where, set its iron heel. We will ask you the 
following question to ponder over; it will go a 
long way toward giving you an idea of the situ- 
ation : Who pushes the wheel of progress the 
hardest, spends the most energy and carries the 
heaviest responsibilities in the colored race? 

Answer: The man of color, in whose veins 
throbs the blood of a Caucasian. All through 
this work we reiterate this fact. 

When the process of amalgamation is prop- 
erly, lawfully, scientifically carried on, there 
is not an iota of danger from loss of native 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 399 

Stamina in the immediate or remote progeny of 
the crossings of whites with the darkest skinned, 
or with any of the intervening types, all the way 
from a full Ethiopian to the slightest trace of 
African blood. The fact that the half-breeds, 
quarter-breeds, etc., of the race, are the main- 
stay, or, in other words, the real backbone of the 
Afro-American, is sufficient proof to most any 
thoughtful, enquiring man, that there must not 
only often be a greater mental capacity, but also 
a decided supply of nerve energy to sustain the 
remarkable display of intellectual and physical 
ability and durability in them. Reader, use your 
judgment; is it not rather astonishing that 
the offspring of, many times the basest kind of 
white man and the commonest kind of Negress, 
have not proven more direful than they have? 

Root out the danger that lies in the wake of 
this class, and a powerful, recuperating influ- 
ence will permeate the race. And then let in- 
telligent men and women of the race (the hog 
will wallow in the mire) make proper selections 
amono^ themselves and affiliate also with the de- 
sirable whites wherever advisable, and practice 
the love-state that produces perfect amalgama- 
tion, and the result will be ultimate mental and 
physical elevation. 

-The depleted physical condition, or, in other 
words, the lack of metal, which is apparent in 



400 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

many of the. lower and middle classes of colored 
men, is almost entirely due: First, to an un- 
natural state of conception and birth; and, sec- 
ondly, to the abuse of the generative organs, the 
use of cigarettes and whiskey, and a life void of 
purpose, system or proper rules of health. In 
our chapter on social vice we have already 
spoken somewhat of this matter. It suffices here 
to say that all the debasing and life-sapping 
practices the whites are addicted to, are partici- 
pated in by the colored. And these social vices 
have, we admit and deplore, already seriously 
impaired the physical and moral health of the 
race. And, we have reasons to believe, from ob- 
servations made, that the white American youth 
is on the same "slippery slough of destruction."" 
WHAT PROFESSOR WM. A. MC- 
KEEVER SAYS OF COLLEGE STU- 
DENTS. — William A. McKeever, professor 
of philosophy in the Kansas State University, 
who has made a study of this matter among the 
whites, has this to say: "There are in the Kan- 
sas State Agricultural college today about half 
a hundred students who are worthless as such, 
and who really ought to be dismissed and put at 
work. Some of them have been sent to college 
with the hope that, with the new opportunities 
offered, they would 'brace up.' Others are mis- 
leading their fond, credulous parents in the be- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 401 

lief that creditable college work really is being 
done. Doubtless every large institution similar 
to this one has its same question of delinquents. 
But if sent back home, or elsewhere, with the 
thought of their engaging in something really 
worth while, the majority of these young per- 
sons — young women of such character are much 
fewer than young men — would show the same 
characteristics of dependence and shiftlessness. 
There is much evidence that they have been 
'spoiled in the raising' rather than low born." 

He asks: "What, of scientific value, do we 
know about developing character in the young?'' 
We would remind the professor of the fact that 
phrenological science has long "known," and 
its students and practitioners have long preached 
"about developing character in the young," 
scientifically. But he speaks with such good 
judgment and his suggestions are of such value 
to both white and colored, that we shall here 
quote him more lengthily: "Why cannot there 
be instituted by legal enactment a standing com- 
mittee of experts of eminent ability and unques- 
tioned authority to make experiments and in- 
quiries extending over a wide field, with a view 
to acquiring some scientific knowledge on the 
subject of child training in the home? There 
is today no such service being performed. 



402 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

THE HUMAN RACE NEGLECTED.— 

"Other matters of less importance, such as sheep 
raising, have long ago been reduced to a science, 
but parents go on rearing their children as of 
old, guided only by instinct, tradition and preju- 
dice. As a result there are among us today thou- 
sands of criminals, paupers and genteel depend- 
ents whose lives might have been made useful 
through intelligent training in childhood. Ac- 
tual experiments could be carried on in orphan 
asylums, reform schools and in ordinary homes 
where there might be a willingness to co-operate 
in the work. The field of inquiry would be the 
country at large, while the results in all cases 
would be carefully tabulated. In every state in 
the union there has been established a station 
for experimentation in matters that pertain to the 
productiveness of the soil and to animal hus- 
bandry. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are 
being expended annually in an effort to enable 
the producer to realize more satisfactorily upon 
his investments in every type of agricultural ani- 
mal from the 'beef steer and his sister to the 
helpful hen.' The government at Washington 
keeps hundreds of experts employed in the 
bureau of plant industry. Many of these are 
stationed in various parts of the country, while 
others are traveling abroad in the interest of 
studying and collecting cereals and grasses that 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 403 

might be successfully propagated in the United 
States. All this work is contributing immensely 
to the country's wealth, and especially to the 
material well-being of the agricultural classes. 
The results of all these investigations and ex- 
periments are worked out on the basis of mathe- 
matical science. Tabulated bulletins are being 
sent out by the hundred to those interested, so 
that scientific methods of farming and stock- 
raising are fast supplanting the old-fashioned, 
wasteful practices. If a farmer has a three-vear- 
old horse that balks or a yearling calf that acts 
a little queer, he can appeal to the experiment 
station and receive, free of cost, a scientific bul- 
letin and a lengthy personal letter covering the 
case. But if the balky or queer-acting creature 
chances to be his sixteen-year-old son or his 
fledgling daughter, he must fight the case out 
alone, or assisted onlv by a despairing wife. 

CHANGING CONDITIONS CHANGE 
CHARACTER. — "Hearsay and traditional 
methods of training children have been in use so 
long as a mere matter of course that it is difiicult 
for us to realize the need of a change. Time 
was when pioneer conditions were so common 
throughout this country that the mere attending 
circumstances could be depended upon to bring 
out forceful and effective traits of character. But 
in these modern, prosperous times such condi- 



404 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

tions have almost entirely disappeared. The 
people are becoming more and more closely 
massed and the allurements to exciting experi- 
ences are becoming correspondingly more 
numerous in the child's environment. Our old- 
fashioned methods of training the young are no 
longer adequate to cope with these changing con- 
ditions. The child gets into the exciting situa- 
tion before he has had enough practice in self- 
restraint to enable him to combat it successfully. 
We have on our hands today thousands of young 
women and men who have been well born, but 
ignorantly reared, and who, as a consequence, 
are deficient in morals and economically useless. 
Of the many in the college where I teach, who 
fail in their classes, very few are naturally dull 
and inapt in their studies. Most of them were 
born with bright minds and quick wits in poten- 
tiality, and they are the children of industrious, 
prosperous parents; but they are pathetically in- 
efficient because of overindulgence in purely im- 
pulsive and spontaneous forms of activity during 
the years of childhood and adolescence, and an 
almost complete lack of experience in sustained, 
purposive efifort. This same condition exists in 
all our schools and colleges. We have all around 
us parents who themselves have been -^efficient 
largely through the rigorous experiences that are 
incident to pioneer life, but who are more or less 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 40o 

ignorant of the source of their own strength of 
character. 

PARENTS ARE CRIMINALLY NEG- 
LIGENT. — "The wealthy centers of the coun- 
try are full of Harry Thaws — minus the shoot- 
ing incident, of course. These over-indulged, 
sickly sentimental young men are driven to every 
conceivable kind of depravity by the insatiable 
craving of an abnormal nature. As times grow 
more prosperous this dissolute manner of rearing 
the young will become our greatest example of 
criminal negligence, unless we develop some 
scientific means of correcting the evil. This evil 
is greatly aggravated by virtue of the fact that 
our newspaper publicity often makes one of these 
dissipated youths the chief player in a great na- 
tional theater. Witness the Thaw case. Thou- 
sands of such young men — and there always will 
be found a young woman to match each one — 
will risk their bankrupt reputations and even 
their necks in the interest of getting into the lime- 
light and securing the applause. And so it might 
seem advisable to establish throughout the land 
a number of experiment stations for child culture 
with the same exact methods of investigation and 
issuing bulletins that characterize the agricul- 
tural stations." 

A CHILD WELL BORN IS TRAINED 
AT BIRTH. — We believe that we have made it 



406 HOLM'S RACE ASSI^IILATION 

clear to all readers that the loss of stamina, if any 
in the Negro race, is not due to the amalgama- 
tion of it with a dissimilar one, but to the evil 
causes which follow in the wake of it. We have 
just seen that "changing conditions change 
characters." The fact that marvelous material 
improvements and multiplications of wealth 
have been wrought by industry in the past de- 
cade, did not, in itself, produce the insatiable 
cravings of an abnormal nature; but the changed 
condition wrought an untried state among these 
whites, and changing conditions among the col- 
ored, of whatever nature, produces like results. 
Rapid changes in environments among people 
of every race and age have produced abnormal 
characters for a time, being thus born. In some 
instances whole nations have gone down, who 
failed to regain their equilibrium before nat- 
ional corruption ensued. And so if Professor 
McKeever will go down to the bottom, the very 
source of delinquency in his students, he will in- 
variably find that unnatural, improper sex-amal- 
gamation, is the first cause of all the Thaw char- 
acteristics and delinquency in the wide world. 
How else could two children of the same par- 
ents, reared in exactly the same environments, 
differ so widely that one may be wholly respect- 
able, industrious, energetic — even a preacher of 
the Gospel — while the other is a black sheep, a 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 407 

veritable Thaw character, or like a Thaw vic- 
tim? Like produces like. This is an unchang- 
able natural law, and no parents can cheat or 
defraud nature. One child born in a harmoni- 
ous love-state, and another under a reversed con- 




ThtE rvtOTI^ER IS 

ThE^PHE>NATAL 
TEACHER 

HER RACE. 

dition, cannot be alike; and no training in the 
home, or any other kind of training, can make 
them alike. We, of course, believe in giving all 
children a thorough home-training, and especi- 
ally in harmony with phrenological science, if 
it were possible; but we maintain that a child 



408 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

rightly born is already trained at birth, and needs 
only a little additional cultivation and care, like 
a vigorous plant, to make it thrive and mature 
beautifully. We believe in the method of child 
culture experiments Professor McKeever advo- 
cates or suggests ; and we are now convinced that 
it would do a vast amount of good in the im- 
provement of the human race ; but we also believe 
that the source, the first cause, the wrong birth, 
should especially receive the attention of our 
government; and this evil should be eliminated 
by it as far as possible, among both white and 
colored, by the scientific methods we advocate, 
and by a thorough educational campaign, such 
as Professor McKeever suggests. 

A MOTHER IS THE PRE-NATAL 
KINDERGARTEN TEACHER.— But this 
is terrible! 

Let the government teach us how to conceive 
and bear better children? Why not? 

Does it not teach us how to improve our stock, 
our farm product and our soil; and are our own 
offspring of less importance than our farms and 
stock? Should not self-improvement, or the bet- 
terment of mankind, be our highest aim in life? 
We have already touched upon this subject. We 
will add that the right conception and birth of 
a child, of whatever color, overshadows and out- 
weighs all other reforms put together; and that 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 409 

the government has not given the races within 
our borders the privilege of attaining a scientific 
knowledge of this subject, in this age of marvel- 
ous achievement, is a moral outrage to the masses 
of people of our great civilization. When every 
conceivable kind of improvement is contemplated 
and executed, why not this? Would not the peo- 
ple pay for it and the country be benefitted 
thereby? 

A mother should not only be in a quiet, happy 
mood during pregnancy, but her mind should 
be occupied with useful, studious and delightful 
thoughts; and her hands with such labor as may 
be congenial to her, and of sufficient importance 
to occupy her entire attention when thus em- 
ployed. She is Nature's kindergarten teacher 
of the embryo and child unborn — the making of 
a man. What a solemn trust hath God conferred 
upon you? O, mother of the human family! 
Violate this sacred trust, and the verdict — guilty 
— is written upon your own flesh and blood, your 
own darling babe, and naught on earth has power 
to erase that sin which you taught it, which you 
committed, while it was alone with you in the 
sanctuary of your soul. The evil thus transmit- 
ted from mother to child is monstrous! — terrible 
to contemplate-^it baffles human understanding. 
Yet, how little is being done to counterbalance 
the evil thus wrought? 



410 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Prospective mothers, do you take a leap into 
the dark as regards the character of your own 
future child? You need not. You can, if you 
will, know the character, the future profession, 
trade or occupation, etc., of your unborn child. 
You can predict its future career if you will. 
You can say with positive knowledge: 
"This mv child, I have caused to be born thus, 

* T 

and its life-work will be that; the other one I 
have caused to be born thus, and its life-work and 
character will be like this," etc. 

But, how? 

By your own effort. You can mould the 
future character of your child like a potter his 
clay, if you will it. But you must positively will 
it. The author has made hundreds of observa- 
tions which fully confirm this fact; and others 
who have investigated along this line have come 
to like conclusions. To illustrate, we will give 
but one case which will convey to you the im- 
portance and truthfulness of our statement, es- 
pecially if we assure you that it is but a common 
occurrence we have met with, among both white 
and colored, in our many years of observations: 
The first child, a boy of this case, was more like 
its father than its mother, and not superior to 
either. The next, a girl, born under nearly the 
same conditions, was again more like him than 
her. The third, again a boy, was unlike the 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 411 

older children and unlike either parent, in that 
its upper frontal brain lobes were more de- 
veloped in the region of Causality and Compari- 
son, and its features were more refined and the 
quality of its brain apparently finer. When en- 
quiring the cause of this phenomenon we, of 
course, were as usually met with bland igno- 
rance and simple curiosity. But, we ask, did you 
not read or study something before this child 
was born; just think and see? "Oh, lordy, yes," 
she exclaimed, "1 sure is I's readin ebery day 
and studen som mo in de night, cause I's gowin 
to be edicated like all de good culued folks." 
Therein lies the secret of mental or brain de- 
velopment, and the unusual brightness of some 
unpromising-looking boys and girls of the black, 
ignorant class of Negroes. This poor, simple- 
minded, good hearted little black mother was 
educating her unborn babe, unknown to herself, 
and was thus unconsciously preparing it for a 
life of greater service and more efficient useful- 
ness to her race. The influence of the mind over 
matter, when intelligently directed, is all-power- 
ful; and for this reason should Negro mothers 
cultivate and use this wonderful knowledge for 
the betterment of the race. Lazy, shiftless 
mothers cannot thus cultivate their children. It 
takes some effort and intense application in the 
direction the child is desired to be developed. 



412 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Whatever trade or profession the child is to ex- 
cel in, must be taken up by the mother and 
thoroughly absorbed, especially during the later 
half of pregnancy, or the effect produced will 
not be satisfactory. And, above all, the moral 
nature of the mother must be trained and inten- 
sified. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 413 



CHAPTER XIX 

PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, OR SOUL-LIFE AND THOUGHT 

FORCE 

SOUL-LIFE. — We not only believe, but we 
know that if there is any soul-life for man, that 
that life is, through Providence, the result of 
man's own psychic achievement. Science has so 
far failed to find any trace of a heaven or a 
spirit-life, save the one that man has created for 
himself. That man cannot create for himself a 
soul-life, cannot be denied by either theology or 
science. The highest theological thought has, in 
fact, supported this truth in late years. God, 
the psychic power of the universe, has so created 
man that soul-life is within his reach — a part of 
his heritage, if he uil/s it. 

We know that any one who has 4|;he positive 
knowledge within himself that he is immortal, 
and can hold that thought, has the key to heaven 
— a spirit-life. When we view this important 
subject in this advanced light, we have a far 
clearer conception of soul-life than we have ever 
had before; and this fact should be a stimulant 
to all who know, to develop their own spiritual 
selves. 

We speak as a scientist, not as a theologian. 



414 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

It is evident that all men do not possess a soul- 
life. It is a well-known fact to psychologists 
that "As A MAN THINKETH IN HIS HEART SO IS 
HE/^ 

It is your belief that holds you, and you not 
your belief. It is your belief that makes you 
what you are. It is your belief that determines 
the shape of your head to a marked extent, and 
also the shape of your body. It causes your face 
to shine with intelligence, morality, benevolence 
and spirituality, if your intellectual, moral and 
spiritual faculties in the brain have been culti- 
vated. On the other hand it stamps upon the 
face cruelty, deceitfulness, licentiousness and 
murder. 

Those of us who know can read all men like 
an open book, and never fail to detect their 
dominant beliefs. 

We believe that the time will come when all 
children at^ur public schools may be able to 
obtain a scientific knowledge of human nature. 
We believe that the time will come when all may 
understand and know their fellow men. 
-' Let us draw your thoughts to the Invisible 
Power which has complete control of all things. 
That part of you which is variously called In- 
telligence, Consciousness, Mind, Soul, Spirit, 
Ego, Divine Principle, etc. That part of you 
which no other animal has so fully developed, 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 415 

is the part of you which can make you immortal, 
which can make you an independent, conscious 
spirit-being, if you will it; which can make you 
a god, a creator, all-powerful, if you will it. 

For advocating this tremendous truth the 
Nazarene philosopher was crucified by the mate- 
rialistic Jews who believed in a materialistic 
god. 

We could prove from a scriptural standpoint 
that our position is a true one; but we are not 
trying to prove any thing by the Bible or any 
other book, but from experience. But in regard 
to the teachings of Christ we will say that He 
taught that He was in the Father, and that by 
father He meant Ruler, Creator, God, etc., and 
that the Father was in Him, and that He and the 
Father were united or one. He taught that the 
Creative Life was in Him, and that He could 
create or destroy, the very thing we are trying 
to bring out — viz., that the power to create or 
destroy is in man, and that no man is finished 
until he has created within himself the charac- 
ter of a soul-life. 

The power to create a soul-life is in all men, 
but a knowledge of this power is not always 
present. John Wesley, George Whitfield, and 
many others had remarkable spiritual faculties, 
still it was quite late in their lives before they re- 
ceived a positive knowledge of soul-life. 



416 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

NO SOUL-LIFE.— The statement of Christ 
that the kingdom of God (of life) is within us, 
is a scientific fact. He often complained of the 
materialistic tendencies of his day. He often 
said, they will not come to me, they will not hear 
me, that they may have life — spirit-life, soul- 
life, immortality. 

As long as a man is not in possession of the 
positive knowledge of soul-life, so long does he 
exist on the animal plane of life; so long is he a 
part of the animal world, where we have no evi- 
dence of a soul-life, save of the reincarnation 
order. 

It is contrary to the teachings of the Nazarene, 
contrary to a fixed psychic law of life to believe 
that a man, civilized or savage, will enter a 
spirit-life when he dies, in direct opposition to 
his life and controlling beliefs. 

Every man is transplanted in the act of pro- 
creation, reappearing in his offspring, until he 
has reached a stage in his existence when his 
soul-life is developed, at which time he passes 
out of the generative into the regenerative or 
spirit-life. Then, and not until then, is a man 
finished — the very image of his maker — an im- 
mortal spirit-being, obtained through the perfect 
model or ideal — Christ. 

To know God, to know the Creative Power of 
the universe, is soul-life in the spirit-world. 



or the fading leopard's spots 41t 

The realization and sensing of immor- 
tality IS immortality. You can no more 
send the soul of a man to heaven, who 
does not believe in a heaven, and has no 
perception of one, than you can send a 
goose into a f ryingpan, that does not believe in a 
roast. You can no more send the soul of a man 
to heaven, who does not believe in a soul or 
heaven, than you can make an ass trot up hill 
that has a strong inclination to stay down. You 
cannot send a thing into spirit-life that does not 
exist, or that is not finished for a spiritual exist- 
ence. You can project a shaft of light into dark- 
ness, but vou cannot project darkness into light. 
HIGHLY DEVELOPED SOUL-LIFE.— 
Permit us to draw the physical likeness of a 
highly developed soul-life. The top-head is 
high and fully developed. He feels through 
every fibre of his physical being that he is spirit. 
He has developed a fixed sense. He is not only 
conscious of immortality, but he is sometimes 
clairvoyant. He is one of a class who some- 
times puzzles psychic scientists with unexplain- 
able phenomenon. There is generally a vast dif- 
ference between him and professional spirit- 
mediums. He is a living fact. He does not per- 
form wonderful slate writing miracles, or any 
other marvelous spirit feats. He may believe 
in professional spirit mediums and be deceived 

27 



418 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




BISHOP R. ALI^EN 
Founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church He 
had a wonderful development of spirituality, veneration and hope 
—a beautiful, sensitive nature. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



419 



by them, especially if he be weak in the percep- 
tive faculties; but Conscientiousness is too strong 
in him, and Secretiveness and the other selfish 
mental faculties are too weakly represented in 
his brain to allow him to pose as a fraud, or de- 
ceive people in any way. Some brains may be 
large, but they are as coarse as sawdust; his 

jSIECAT(VE. 

SPIRITU/^LITY, 

" VENERATION. 




A LOW-CLASS EAST AFRICAN SAVAGE. 
(From a photograph.) 

In this animal-man the higher or transcendental brain organs, 
through which veneration and spirituality act, are almost absent. 
The light outline shows his profile, the dotted hne shows the 
difference between the cranium development of Bishop James 
Varick and this savage. This man needs a great deal of patient 
training in order to develop a conscious soul-life. 



420 



HOLM'S R-\CE ASSIMILATION 



brain is as fine as silk. It is reported that while 
John Wesley was in a mob at one time, a man 
raised his arm to strike him, but suddenly 
dropped it and stroked his head, saying, "What 
soft hair he has!" Wesley was one of those who 
had a remarkable fine brain, through which his 
mind could express itself with marked results, 
but Swedenburg's was the greatest we know of. 




RISHOP JAMES VARICK. 

Founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 
Large brain, practical thinker, a leader of men. He had a stub- 
born, determined nature, toned down by large human nature, 
benevolence, spiritualit}' and veneration. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S "SPOTS 421 

We wish to be plainly understood. Some are 
better developed than others from childhood, 
but all who have ever achieved any degree of 
power, have passed through a painful process of 
evolution. 

We give you the positive assurance that you 
have the power within yourself to develop the 
body in which you live, and shape it, and ex- 
press yourself through it, and through all mate- 
rial things about you, as you please. 

You can create within yourself any belief you 
please; and it is your dominant belief that 
makes you what you are. 

You should shape your own destiny and not be 
a creature of circumstances. If you do not know 
yourself, but carelessly drift along in the current 
of circumstances, you will retain the undesir- 
able position of a "negative," and you will never 
become the moulder of society, a captain of in- 
dustry, the governor of a people, or any other 
positive pole. 

THE MAN WHO FEELS ALL IS MAT- 
TER. — Now, we shall draw the outline of a 
man who feels through his whole being that "all 
is matter." His head is low and broad. He is 
intensely materialistic. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes says : "It is such a sad 
thing to be born a sneaking fellow, so much worse 
than to inherit a humpback or a couple of club 



422 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

feet, that I sometimes feel as if we ought to love 
the crippled souls, if I may use this expression, 
with a certain tenderness we need not waste on 
noble natures. One w^ho is born with such con- 
genital incapacity that nothing can make a gen- 
tleman of him is entitled not to our wrath, but 
to our profoundest sympathy." 

It is just possible for him to grasp the idea of 
spiritual and moral laws. His moral and spirit- 
ual faculties are all negative. His selfish fac- 
ulties are all highly developed. He enjoys a 
prize-fight, a cock-fight and every other kind of 
a fight. He lives on the animal plane of life. 
If you put any trust in him he is likely to take 
advantage of you. He is a monster when 
aroused and capable of committing any deed. 
He is a licentious brute, who has not yet created 
within himself the possibility of a soul-life. He 
has talents, but they are of a cunning, selfish 
nature, and not productive of soul-life. i\ma- 
tiveness may cause him to be very pleasing at 
times, especially to ladies, but we pity any 
woman who ever comes within the circle of his 
influence or force, and vice versa. He is void of 
virtue and animal-like. 

WE MAY CHANGE IF WE WILL.— 
From this most unfortunate state of mind up to 
the highest we find a great variety of characters, 
always depending upon the degree of develop- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 423 

ment in the brain of the forty-two faculties of 
which the Mind is composed. 

Those faculties of the Mind which are most 
highly developed are the ones that determine 
the man's character, the shape of his head, his 
face and body. But if you have knowledge of 
yourself, you will realize the fact that your phy- 
sical brain is as plastic as clay in a potter's hands, 
and that you can shape it, and create within it 
the belief essential to a soul-life, and all other 
desirable qualities, if you positively will it. You 
have within you the power to change the shape 
of your cranium, the shape of your face and the 
shape of your whole physical being, and express 
yourself through it as you please. As we state 
elsewhere, a criminal or unfortunately de- 
veloped man cannot be trained to overcome self, 
until he has knowledge of the power within and 
wills it. 

We shall now make a statement relative to 
what has already been said, and then we shall 
show vou the truth of it: 

WE RECEIVE AS MUCH AS WE BE- 
LIEVE. — "Whatsoever you ask, believing that 
you will receive it, you have it." 

This psychic law never fails to respond just 
as far as we comply with its conditions. If you 
will look about you with your eye of understand- 
ing, you will see the operation of this law on 



424 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

every hand. There is nothing on earth that man 
has ever done, that is not the result of the opera- 
tion of this psychic law. 

There is nothing, no matter how easy it may 
be, that a man can do, unless he believes that he 
can do it. And it is often the case that a man 
does not know how to create a belief in himself 
to do a certain thing, and consequently cannot 
do it. This is commonly known as failure — 
failure to do a certain thing undertaken. Many 
men fail in everything they undertake to do. 
They never succeed. They are sick. It's a dis- 
ease. They are deficient in certain elementary 
qualities of the mind. They ought to be treated 
for success. They could make a success in their 
right calling in life, if they knew themselves and 
could create the necessary belief in themselves 
essential to success. It is true, some succeed in 
what they do, without knowing why, but every 
one of them has unconsciously created the thing 
essential to success. The man who knows him- 
self, and is conscious of the power within him, 
and knows how to use it, is sure of success, while 
the other fellow gropes about in the dark, know- 
ing not "whence he cometh or whither he goeth." 
And the same thing is true in regard to soul-life. 
A man may unconsciously cultivate a soul-life 
for himself, and get to heaven without knowing 
how he got there, and walk the golden streets 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



425 



with his boots on, and eat the fruit of life with 
his smutty mouth and dirty face, but everything 
is against him— the whole world of darkness, 
ignorance, sin and wrong beliefs— and nothing 
is for him to which he can cling, as long as he is 
unconscious of the Creative Power within him- 
self, as long as he is not "Born of the spirit." 

The realization and sensing of immortality is 
immortality. 

MATERIAL EVIDENCE I L L U S - 
TRATES. — But let us not depart from the 
thought we hold at present. Let us look at the 
material evidence for a few moments, that we 
may prove, beyond the least shadow of doubt, 
the truth of our position. 

There was no one who believed that the Alps 
in Switzerland could be crossed by rail, until the 
germ of faith was generated in an engineer's 
mind, and behold! it was done. There was no 
one who believed that steam navigation could 
be employed to any great extent until Robert 
Fulton, that marvelous inventive mind demon- 
strated in 1803 on the Seine, and in 1807 on the 
Hudson, that it could be done. The wonder- 
ful progress made in this direction in a century 
borders the miraculous. The Atlantic Liner 
Mauretania, the queen of the seas, now makes 
the transatlantic trip in four days and seventeen 
hours; an average speed of 25.55 knots per hour, 



426 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

against the heavy winter sea, and it is believed 
that this even can be excelled. To do this she 
converts i,ooo tons of coal a day into ashes. The 
coal put on board for one trip requires twenty- 
two coal trains of thirty trucks each, if each truck 
carries ten tons. She can accommodate 500 first- 
class passengers, 500 second-class and 1,300 
third-class. To sail the ship and look after the 
various wants of the ocean voyagers there are 
seventy officers and men in the sailing depart- 
ment, 350 stewards and fifty cooks, 390 in the 
engineer's department, besides the band and a 
good sized company of telephone and telegraph 
operators, printers for a daily newspaper and 
various attendants — a total of from 800 to 900 
.men makes up the crew — equal to an average 
regiment of infantry. 

Who was there in the wide world with the 
faintest belief that any other communication 
could ever be established between this country 
and Europe than by the slow-going ships, before 
Cyrus W. Field stepped upon the arena and 
said, "It can be done?" All the mountains of 
difficulties were swept aside, and today that be- 
lief stands a grand monument to preceding ages, 
of the marvelous power of the mind over mat- 
ter. And yet again has loomed up before us an- 
other belief, in the same direction, which was 
born and nursed in the mind of Marconi and 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 427 

Others who have since demonstrated before all 
men, that it is possible to communicate with the 
world, without wire or cable, by electricity. 

Electricit\^ was very little thought of until 
Prof. Morse began to use it as a telegraphic 
medium, and after that wonderful invention it 
was thought to have reached its highest useful- 
ness, and nothing more was done. But as time 
went on there appeared upon the scene Thomas 
Edison. In that mind began to grow a belief in 
the future of electricity that baffles all descrip- 
tion. Mr. Edison actually dared to believe in 
greater possibilities than have ever been achieved 
by mortal man, and today we have most every 
convenience we can think of coming from this 
unseen force, 

MAN IS A CONSCIOUS AND CREA- 
TIVE BEING.— And thus we could follow 
up achievement after achievement, discovery 
after discovery, invention after invention, until 
we have circumscribed the whole territory of 
man's activities, from a wooden plow to a flying 
machine and a visit to the North Pole, and still 
not find a single instance in which man has done 
anything that was not the result of the Creative 
Propensity of his being. And we wish to reit- 
erate the fact, that Man is the only being on 
earth who has the full consciousness of life, and 
the power to create whatsoever he desires. 



428 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

"But," you may ask here, "are there not lim- 
its?" We answer, certainly there are. Man's 
powers like all other things are limited. There 
never was a beginning without an end, but who 
has ever measured the creative power of man 
from his beginning to his end. 

Who has ever measured God from His be- 
ginning to His end? 

God and man are one, IF MAN WILLS IT. 

Some day all men will learn the highest law 
of their being — the power to create and the 
power to destroy. 

PARENTS SHAPE THE SOUL OF 
THEIR CHILD.— On the other hand it has 
been argued by those who believe in universal 
salvation — who believe that all men have spirit- 
life and are either saved or unsaved — that if our 
position is a true one, all irresponsible children 
who die are without conscious soul-life, and con- 
sequently lost. "And," they say, "Jesus said, 'Of 
such is the kingdom of heaven.' " A lack of 
knowledge of this psychic law has caused man 
to stumble and fall into all kinds of errors on his 
long, painful march from the swamps of the ani- 
mal life, to the mountain top of a conscious, fin- 
ished soul. 

Let us mark closely what recent psychological 
research has brought to light. We have already 
touched upon this in a former chapter. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 429 

We find that parents have within their reach 
the power to shape the destiny of their offspring. 

We find that the father and mother can con- 
ceive and mould the soul of their unborn child as 
they please, shaping it either in purity and im- 
mortality, or in depravity and degradation. 

O man! O woman! you hold the destiny of 
your child in your hand. You can bring your 
babe before the throne of the Immortal to be 
blest, or cast it into the dark pit of spiritual un- 
consciousness, as you please or will. 

You have within you the power to curse, the 
power to create, the power to bless, and the 
power to destroy. 

Man has no more right to populate this beau- 
tiful world with drunkards, idiots, outlaws and 
vagabonds, than he has to kill his neighbor or 
curse his God. 

The beautiful practice of dedicating infants 
to God, the Father of all, has a far greater sig- 
nificance to us, since it has proven of scientific 
importance, than it has ever had before. 

Procreation with no other object than the grat- 
ification of lust, is the crowning curse of race 
mixing and modern civilization. 

The libertinism and gross licentiousness of to- 
day in both' races, is a reproach to all existing 
institutions in America. 

Let the union of two souls of any two races 



430 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

enter the sanctuary of the immortal-self, and the 
child — the man of the future — be he considered 
mixed or pure, when he drops the body of clay, 
will be positive of a conscious, independent 
spirit state. 

The gross error and superstition of the past, 
born in the mental darkness of man's early morn- 
ing is fast breaking away, and the golden ray of 
a noonday sun is penetrating to the quick in all 
its infinite glory, enlightening and broadening 
his vision, leading up, and up, to a full realiza- 
tion of a pure, beautiful, perfect, finished, con- 
scious soul-life. 

In procreation the spiritual as well as the phy- 
sical man and woman must unite in the produc- 
tion of a God-child — a child with a perfect body 
as well as a developed soul-life. 

Thus, and thus alone, can be created a "New 
heaven and a new earth" in which immortal 
souls can live and commune with the Father of 
all, in love and harmony, in peace and happiness, 
above race, above hatred, above the crime of 
war. 

A UNION OF THOUGHT-FORCES 
IS IRRESISTIBLE.— The greatest and wisest 
philosopher the world has ever known once 
asked, "Where is your faith?" (Luke. 8, 25). 

A union of thought-force or faith has always 
proved irresistible. The world, with all its wis- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 431 

dom today, has not yet fully discovered the ter- 
rible potency of combined thought-force. Here- 
in lies the greatest weakness of the Negro 
race today. This fact we wish to impress especi- 
ally upon our colored readers in these closing 
remarks. The Afro-American and Colored Cau- 
casian docs not exercise sufficient combined 
thought-force to bring about results most desir- 
able, with his white co-workers. There are too 
many leading men of fine education and broad 
culture in the race who make actual confessions 
to the dominant forces that they are inferior be- 
ings; and others who do not do this retire with 
all their acquired and God-given talents into a 
gloomy, pessimistic atmosphere. 

Now, whatsoever a union of thought-force 
DEMANDS, that shall come to pass. This fact 
was fully illustrated in the emancipation move- 
ment. All the power of thought of a handful of 
men and women was centered upon the demand 
that "slavery shall be abolished," and the civil- 
ized world echoed in a hypnotic sleep — "slavery 
shall be abolished," and it was abolished. 

We received a letter from a man of learning 
and great mental capacity, of African descent, 
as white as 'any Caucasian. We quote him here, 
as it bears upon the thought we hold. He says 
in part: "You see that nothing we can propose 
or do will avail anything unless the white race 



432 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

approves. Now the white race is a great race, 
and they have mastered a larger body of truth 
than any other race. But as a race they have 
willed on the race question that they will be 
utterly inaccessible to any plea or argument that 
conflicts with their settled determination on the 
race question. We can find an easy solution for 
this question in the Bible, but even the Bible is 
ruled out where it comes into conflict with this 
settled determination. If the Bible and free 
speech could be tolerated we could easily find 
"the way out," but with these barred it is use- 
less to speak at all. * * * But for this 
"settled determination" not to follow or tolerate 
truth except so far, this question could be easily 
solved, as have been all the great questions of 
human progress during the centuries." 

A great plutocratic politician once said, "The 
people be damned," when speaking of their 
rights, and this is equally appliable to this 
"settled determination" of which our corre- 
spondent speaks. Such "settled determination" 
is doomed as soon as an irresistible union of 
thought-force is centered upon the prevalent 
wrongs and sears them with the eternal Spirit 
of Truth. 

This "settled determination" by the white race 
in regard to the race question, is but a psychic 
disorder as we say elsewhere. Our correspond- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



433 



ent, whom we quote, says that "the white race 
has mastered a larger body of truth than any 
other race." While it has done this it has not yet 
received sufficient psychic- enlightenment, or 
"Spirit of Truth," to be healed of this serious 
mental disorder, and subjugate the selfish, ani- 
mal propensity. 

This "settled determination" of the white race 
is based upon the selfish animal nature in man, 
and therefore cannot endure the glare of science 
or exact reasoning. The animal nature in man 
cannot reason, and consequently cannot discern 
right from wrong. It has no more regard for 
the Christian religion or the truth the Bible con- 
tains than a cow, horse or dog. 

It is the selfish animal in the white man that 
will cause him to disfranchise his own son, and 
curse his own daughter, and ignore their mother, 
because of color. This same selfish propensity 
has caused Mr. Tillman to say that he will not 
allow the heel of the Negro on his neck; and 
has caused Vardaman to say that the "saddle 
horse at Tuskegee does not know as much about 
our form of government as a white man from 
the back woods who cannot read or write." 

This same selfish beast propensity causes an 
irresponsible populace in this country to snub, 
belittle and damn the people of color; it causes 
all the mob violence and lynching and deprives 
the Negro of his rights a^ a citizen. 



434 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

This lower element in human nature is an ele- 
ment of cowardice when it faces the Sermon on 
the Mount. It has caused all wars and blood- 
shed; it has caused one race to enslave another; 
it rules by physical force and not by love or rea- 
son ; but in every age of the world's history it 
has cowered in the dust when the spiritual ele- 
ment in human nature has exerted itself in a 
union of thought-force, in the presentation of 
truth and justice. 

Thought takes form in action. We receive as 
much as we believe. Hammer a truth into a 
people by persistent repetition and that truth 
will take form in action. The psychic law that 
a "little leaven will leaven the whole lump" will 
endure the ages until time is no more. A truth, 
though it be regarded as small as a mustard seed, 
when planted will grow and become a tree so the 
birds of the air (the little children at the 
mother's knee) may recognize it and roost 
therein. 

THE WAY OUT SUMMED UP.— An 

OPEN, UNPREJUDICED INTERMARRIAGE UNION, 
SCIENTIFIC CARE OF THE CRIMINAL CLASS OF 
BOTH RACES, WITH A NATURAL, MODULATED SEPA- 
RATION OF THE RACES, WITHOUT ANY STATE IN- 
TERFERENCE, JUST AS THE CONSCIENCE AND 
RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS MAY DICTATE TO THE 
MEN AND WOMEN OF A FREE COIWTRY, AND AN 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 435 

EDUCATION ON THE BROAD BASIS OF UNIVERSAL 
BROTHERHOOD— THESE ARE THE ESSENTIALS IN 
OVERCOMING CLANNISHNESS AND COLOR LINES 
AxND IN ESTABLISHING A UNITED PEOPLE IN THESE 
UNITED STATES. 



436 riOL^rS RACE ASSIMILATION 

RESUME 

INTRODUCTION 

The following writers scarcely need an intro- 
duction. They have all made their mark in the 
upbuilding of their race, some of them attaining 
international reputation. We have spared 
neither time nor expense in selecting them for 
this book, as to differences in age, the amount of 
Negro blood, and other striking physical and 
mental contrasts. 

The student of human nature will find in them 
a variety in thought and mental make-up, both 
pleasing and profitable to pursue. They touch 
upon nearly every subject we discuss in this 
work. 

Beginning with the ripe, scholarly minister, 
Rev. John H. White, D. D., whose essay corre- 
sponds with our first chapter. Next comes Dr. 
James Shepard on "Prejudice," followed by an 
"Optimistic View," by a not less cultured gentle- 
man, Prof. Davis, very different in physical 
and mental characteristics. Then comes an in- 
teresting paper, giving a general survey, by Prof. 
William Pickens, the rising young linguist, un- 
like either of the preceding writers. Without 
either writer knowing what the next one will 
sav, or who the next one will be, James E. Mc- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 437 

Girt, the magazine editor and writer on 
economy, picks up a thread where Prof. Pick- 
ens drops it, and says just what the reader would 
expect him to say to complete an argument. 

No one will fail to note the next writer, who 
says just what he wants to say without "beating 
about the bush" — Bishop Alexander Walters, 
the fearless soldier of truth and justice, the 
recognized leader of the Afro-American people. 
The little leaven he puts into his paper is so 
powerful, it leavens a whole lump of readers. 
And right at his heels comes a little brown 
woman, in the person of Anna D. Borden, a fear- 
less and outspoken woman of the Negro race. 
Though small and delicate physically, she is a 
veritable bundle of energy, surpassing nearly 
every other woman who has ever stood for the 
uplift and liberty of womanhood. Following 
this lady comes Sophia Cox Johnson, giving a 
graphic description of how the Negro woman 
is advancing right in the heart of the Black Belt. 

Next we meet with a pleasant surprise in the 
department of logical reasoning, flowing from 
the magnetic pen of that able, fascinating, force- 
ful writer of the A. M. E. Zion Church, Bishop 
J. W. Smith. No man or woman, with any men- 
tal capacity whatever, can escape this writer, 
without being seriously impressed with the 
truth of his arguments. 



438 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Following Bishop Smith we meet with an- 
other writer of natural ability, Rev. J. W. Wood, 
whose wonderful oratory is heard in one of the 
largest and most cultured churches on the Gulf 
coast, which he is pastoring at the present time. 
His view of the race question is in harmony with 
our idea of human evolution. He has had 
broad experience both North and South, and he 
testifies to the fact, w^e so often reiterate in this 
book, that the cultured and educated of both 
races, and not the lower element, w^ill eventually 
bring about social equality between the races. 

J.J. H. 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE HAMITIC 
OR NEGRO RACE IN HISTORY 

BY JOHN H. WHITE, D. D. 

(Contributed for this book.) 

A certain writer said "That the best evidence 
of a race's being on earth is the mark left behind 
in the wake of its tread." Historians differ as to 
the origin of the Negro or Black Race, that is, 
the modern historians of the American and Eng- 
lish, and, to some extent, the German schools; 
but we leave them with profound pity to their 




JOHN II. WHITE, D. D. 
Colored Caucasian. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 439 

racial prejudice, and turn to the oldest history 
that the world knows, the Bible, from which we 
read the historical account, the origin of the 
Black Race in Genesis, tenth chapter, sixth to 
twentieth verses, I presume that Moses, or the 
compiler of this historical account, knew the 
ethnological distinctions, and racial divisions of 
the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japhet, I 
suppose the ancient Greek historians, authors, 
philosophers, and travelers, who were deeply 
interested in Egypt, were proud to ascribe to 
that country their origin and the source from 
which they derived their religion and art. I 
presume that Herodotus, Diodorus, Josephus 
and Strabo, and, in fact, the best Greek author- 
ities and historians, the best and most reliable 
Latin, Babylonian and Egyptian historians, with 
Rollins and other impartial and unprejudiced 
writers among the moderns, knew more as to the 
ethnology of the Hamitic or Negro race, than 
all the critics and enemies of the black race, of 
the present generation put together. 

The traveler who crosses the plains of Asia, 
and goes along the course of the River Eu- 
phrates, and then passes down the valley of the 
Nile in Africa, and looks about him, and sees the 
ruins of magnificent temples, public buildings 
and tombs, or mausoleums for the dead, the 
Sphinx and the towering pyramids, will behold a 



440 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

marv^elous evidence of the genius of a people, of 
a race who lived in the ages gone by, who pro- 
duced a civilization that was the pioneer of every 
other in the development of the world's history, 
and to whom the modern nations owe a debt that 
they can never pay the people who inhabited 
^these countries. 

I. THE NEGRO ETHNOLOGICALLY 
CONSIDERED.— The word Negro is of Latin 
origin, and signifies black, brown or swarthy, 
derived from the Latin word Niger, as now ap- 
plied to the races of the African continent, and 
their descendants in the United States, the West 
Indies and other parts of the world. Some 
American historians like Ridpath, and other 
small imitators, do not class the Egyptians and 
Ethiopians, or Abyssinians of northern Africa 
as Negroes; but the old Greek and Latin writ- 
ers, and many of the most eminent and scholarly 
modern historians, put the ancient Egyptians, 
the Ethiopians or modern Abyssinian into the 
black or brown column, and call them Hamites 
or black. Egypt was called the black land, and 
the Egyptians called their country Kem, or the 
land of the black people. The Ethiopians, the 
present Abyssinians, the swarthy land or the land 
of the sunburnt. The Bible, the best history, 
asks an important question, "Can the Ethiopian 
change his skin?" 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 441 

II. THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE 
HAMITIC OR BLACK RACE IN THE 
HISTORY OF THE WORLD.— In an article 
in the "Arena" of September, 1896, Prof. Boy- 
ton, of Ohio University, says: "The black race 
has a history; in fact all history is full of traces 
of the black element. It is now recognized as 
the oldest race of which we have any knowledge. 
The wanderings of the people since pre-historic 
times began, have not been confined to the Afri- 
can continent. In Paleolithic times the black 
race roamed at will over the fairest portion of 
the old world. Europe as well as Asia and Af- 
rica acknowledged his sway. No white man 
had yet appeared to dispute his authority in the 
vine-clad valleys of France and Germany, or 
upon the classic hills of Greece and Rome. The 
black man preceded all others, and carried Pal- 
eolithic culture to every height." 

All honor to this unbiased and impartial his- 
torian ; so much so, because he is a white man, 
and an American. 

III. NOTICE, BLACK OR HAMITIC 
RACE— A FUNDAMENTAL RACE.— (a) 
The Hamitic Negro race is a fundamental ele- 
ment in origin; not only the primitive races of 
Southern Europe, but of all the civilized coun- 
tries of antiquity. History begins, it may be 
said, in Ancient Egypt, and recedes into the dim 



442 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

past. Just as far as records and inscriptions give 
us light, in the valley of the Nile, along its 
banks we find civilization that has drawn from 
all the world and succeeding ages expressions 
of wonder arid admiration. 

(b) The Ancient Egyptians were a remark- 
able people; the ruling tribes are called Hami- 
tics. "The Sunburnt Family," says Dr. Win- 
chel, "Of Nigritic Origin," says Rawlinson; but 
the ancient Greek historians tell us that back of 
the ruling Hamites were a gay, goodnatured, 
pleasant people. 

(c) Says Dr. Taylor, an authority on eth- 
nology, "These people lived peaceably in these 
regions two thousand years before the advent of 
the Asiatic invaders. Suggestive as they seem, 
these terms are truly descriptive of the inhab- 
itants whom we expect to find in the Valley of 
the Nile in ancient times. Thev were as purely 
Nigritic as the great mass of the American 
Negro or Afro-Americans. 

IV. A RULING RACE— (a) When the 
Hamite and their descendants were at the height 
of their power, their influence extended far 
wider than generally supposed. They passed 
on to the confines of Europe; and took posses- 
sion of Iberia, Modern Spain. Dr. Winchel 
says: (North American Review) "They entered 
Spain by the pillars of Hercules, the strait of 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 443 

Gibraltar. They came from Northern Africa, 
and overran the Spanish Peninsula, founded 
cities, built a navy, carried on commerce and ex- 
tended their Empire over Italy and Sicanes." 

When Rome was founded, before the siege 
and sack of Italy, these Hamites or Nigritic peo- 
ple passed into Sicily. 

(b) The Pelasgic Empire w^as at its height 
as early as 2,000 years B. C. These people came 
from the Island of the Aegean Sea, and more 
remotely from Asia Minor. They were origin- 
ally a branch of the Sunburnt Hamitics or 
Nigritic Stock that laid the foundation of civi- 
lization in Canaan, Mespotamia, Zion and Tyre. 
They passed on back to Africa and founded 
Carthage, the head of the Carthaginian Empire. 
Great Rome itself was of Pelasgian or Hamitic 
stock up to 428 B. C, until the Pelasgic stock 
became amalgamated with neighboring people 
and thus produced the Roman Conqueror of the 
world. 

(c) The ancient Greeks were a mixture of 
Hamitic and Japhetic blood. The Hellens were 
the first Aryans to be brought into contact with 
the Sunburnt Hamitics. The Hamatics of 
Greece, who are described by the prejudiced 
historian as "white," were as strongly Nigritic 
as the Afro-American of the United States. 

These Hellenes were savages and barbarians, 



444 HOLiM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

and the Hamites were cultured, learned and civ- 
ilized, possessing knowledge of the arts and 
sciences; Aryan or Japhetic push and energy 
were brought in contact with Hamitic culture 
and civilization. 

Then began the great struggle of the centuries 
for social equality between the Blonde Aryan or 
descendant of Japhet, and the Brunette Pelas- 
gian or descendant of Ham, who had brought 
science and culture to Greece in the remote ages 
of the past from Egypt. 

Had it not been for the mixture of the dark 
blood of the Brunette Pelasgian, the dark child 
of the soil in the Greek compositions, Demos- 
thenes, Eschylus, Sophocles, Socrates and hosts 
of Greek poets, orators, artists and philosophers 
would never have existed. 

V. THE HAMITE OR NEGRO HAS 
FIGURED CONSPICUOUSLY IN ALL 
THE WORLD'S RACES.— (a) The Negro 
has always figured in the history of the world. 
His blood has entered strongly into that of the 
dominant and conquering Roman, into the Latin 
races of Europe — France, Spain and Italy. This 
Nigritic blood had much to do with the build- 
ing up of the great English nation, from the 
Phoenician mingling the blood of the Hamite 
with that of the Celt, Saxon, Dane and Norman 
French, and in every country on this continent 
his blood mingles with the greatest in the land. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 445 

VI. HAMITE AS A CIVILIZER.— (a) 

As a civilizer, the Hamite has not had his equal, 
or has not been equalled by his other brethren, 
the Semitic or Japhetic races. Long before 
Rome was founded, or Greece flourished, the 
descendants of Ham in Egypt had given to the 
world the highest possibilities for civilization 
and culture. To those who deny the Negro in 
general, and especially in this country the possi- 
bilities of culture and development, we point to 
the slow progress of the "Aryan Races," so 
called by many writers on ethnology; but es- 
pecially so designed by Prof. Max Mullen 

Who could have foreseen the strength and 
power of the Aryan or so-called "White Race?" 
For thousands of years that race roamed the 
woods and forests of Asia and Europe, and were 
as ignorant and barbarous as the African in his 
native jungle. 

(b) When at length the proper time of its 
development was furnished by Providence, this 
great energetic, pushing, grasping race sprang 
into splendid development, and has long since 
passed its fellows in the race of progress and 
civilization. When in the order of God's prov- 
idence the same favorable conditions and en- 
vironments shall be supplied to the descendants 
of Ham in this country, and especially when 
"The Door of Hope is fully opened," shall mean 



446 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

more than words, when "A Square Deal" shall 
be a fact and not a fiction, then shall the Negro 
or Afro-American respond to the opportunities 
given, and develop into a great, progressive race, 
and lead again in the development of the 
World's History. 

Camden, N. J. 



COLOR PREJUDICE IN AMERICA AND 
EUROPE— CAUSES 

BY JAMES E. SHEPARD 

President of the National Religious Training School and Chau- 
tauqua, located at Durham, N. C. 

(Contributed for this book.) 

There is a prejudice in America against peo- 
ple of color. This prejudice is seen in acts of 
disbarments from public schools, in discrimina- 
tion on vehicles used as public carriers, where 
the same price is paid by all in public accommo- 
dations, and in laws which are partially admin- 
istered in many instances. Color prejudice in 
America is due to two direct causes. First, the 
Anglo-Saxon's innate belief that he is superior to 
all other races. This was plainly shown in the 
attitude of the Japanese, who are colored people. 

Admitting the fact that in many instances the 
Anglo-Saxon is superior, the superiority ought 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 







d. 



riif i nw i , iiiia«M«iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiBiiiMi 



^< — ^^ ■>» ---..^...,^ ~vwOO«««WM»««<'AonAM^<4 



luamsetv^ 



Afro-American. 



448 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

to be shown in the broadness of views, justice 
and kindness to all men, which, whenever shown^ 
denotes true greatness and the highest superior- 
ity. The fact also is lost sight of that three- 
fourths of the world's population can rightly be 
classed as colored people, and in fact, from early 
antiquity there has been such a mixture of blood 
between all nations, that it is hard to draw a di- 
viding line w^hich is absolutely correct. 

Second, the prejudice toward the Negro espe- 
cially is due to the first statement, and to the 
further fact that the Negro was formerly held 
in bondage. After the emancipation, so great 
was th€ prejudice held by some that they could 
not endure to live in a country where former 
slaves had been placed on terms of equal citi- 
zenship, and many southerners went to Brazil in 
South America, so that they could still hold their 
fellow men in slavery. 

Justice was not asleep. It was not long be- 
fore slavery was abolished in Brazil, and those 
who fled from the United States on account of 
the emancipation of the slaves had to face the 
same conditions in South America, and even 
face, in the beginning, a greater equality than 
has ever existed in the United States. What a 
cruel irony of fate! 

The further fact is lost sight of, that if the 
prejudice is due to former slavery, then this 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 44^ 

would be a just cause for a world-wide hatred, 
for at one time or another every nation was in 
bondage to some other nation. The prejudice 
cannot be charged to illiteracy, for every day 
steamships are pouring upon American soil a 
teeming horde of illiterate people who are out 
of harmony with the spirit and conditions of the 
country; so the only reason that we can ascribe 
the American prejudice to is color. 

In America this color prejudice is decidedly 
inimical to the growth of a republic, especially 
a republic which in its very preamble sets forth 
the fact that all men are born equal and en- 
dowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights, the principal ones being the right to life, 
liberty and the pursuits of happiness. In Amer- 
ica civil rights have not been separated from the 
right to live, to acquire education and to pursue 
business and to participate in the affairs of the 
government. To the close observer it would 
seem passing strange that all the rights set out 
by the above should be made subservient to so- 
cial rights, and yet it is the case. 

States, in their extreme eagerness to regulate 
so-called social rights, have lost sight of the fact 
that every individual has a right to live and to 
hope, and any other spirit is beneath the notice 
of a republic founded upon liberty and justice. 
The State has no right to regulate the social 



450 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

status of the individuals; the social right in 
every case can be regulated by the individuals 
concerned. A particular class has the right to 
exclude another from the social privileges which 
they enjoy, but the State never! The case has 
been stated fairly so far as America is concerned. 
Prejudice, to some extent exists in Great Britain. 
The smaller prejudice is of color; the larger is 
of class. The smaller prejudice of color that 
exists in Great Britain is due to the American 
influence. 

I pen these remarks with regret but it is abso- 
lutely true. In a tour through Great Britain, 
in places little visited by Americans I found no 
prejudice. In towns visited by Americans there 
is prejudice, although veiled to a large extent. 
There is a broad and deep sympathy in the 
hearts of Englishmen for the colored race in 
America; and this is shown in many ways. In 
fact the English people have always been the 
friend of liberty in their effort to put down the 
slave traffic. England paid Portugal £300,000 
and paid Spain £400,000. They kept a squadron 
on the West coast of Africa at an actual cost esti- 
mated by Mr. Gladstone, when he was Chancel- 
lor of the Exchequer, of £700,000 per year and 
a great sacrifice of valuable lives. They paid to 
the West Indies and Mauritius £20,000,000 to 
free their slaves, and altogether the efforts of 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 451 

England to put down this abominable traffic cost 
the country between fifty and one hundred 
million pounds. The treatment of the Kaffirs 
in South Africa is altogether different, and 
neither the conditions nor the people are the 
same as in America. 

Tn Great Britain the larger prejudice is due to 
the ancient feudal system of master and servant 
and land tenure founded upon the King's favor, 
and special grants of landed estates were handed 
down from father to son, or nearest kin. This 
class distinction or prejudice will exist so long 
as Great Britain has the present system of entail. 
Land, except in very few instances, cannot be 
bought; it can only be given as an estate for 
years or lease, and after the expiration of the 
same, the estate with all its appurtenances re- 
verts to the original owner. The City of Lon- 
don has acquired a great deal of land and leases 
It out, at an excessively high and even oppressive 
rental. To those who advocate municipal own- 
ership, a careful study of that will produce a 
change, or at least cause them to modify their 
opinion. 

Class prejudice is bad, but it cannot be com- 
pared with color prejudice. In many instances 
there is social intercourse between the landlord 
and the tenant, and in many cases even if the 
blood is wanting and money is in abundance, the 



452 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

walls of separation are largely broken down. 
France presents the truest and best example of 
what a republic should be in the treatment of 
all classes, of any large republic on earth, with 
the possible exception of Brazil. I speak of the 
masses and not of the classes. The Dreyfus in- 
cident could happen in America. In France a 
man is a man, absolutely free. Color plays no 
p-art in the recognition of a person in any of the 
walks of life. Money more than anything else 
is the open sesame in France. The color preju- 
dice is entirely absent. The average Frenchman 
would not give up his easy-going habit to disturb 
himself over the fact as to whether his neighbor 
was black or white. They are undoubtedly, tak- 
ing everything into consideration, the most polite 
people on earth. 

The electorate system is different from Amer- 
ica, but every class of its citizens can, in some 
way, register his wish and have that wish ex- 
pressed. There are two things an intelligent 
Frenchman cannot understand: First, the re- 
publican form of government as expressed by 
the United States, in its treatment of the colored 
races. Second, why such a rich country cavils 
at the payment of claims against it which have 
been approved. When they point out to the 
traveler massive and historic buildings, dating 
back in the centuries long ago gone by, and show 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 453 

US magnificent ruins, even in their fallen grand- 
eur sublime, we point with pride to the achieve- 
ments of a nation born but yesterday. That is 
looking toward the rising and not the setting sun. 
They admit that and then ask about the treat- 
ment of the colored people, and why such a 
great and rich nation will not pay its honest and 
approved debts. Then it is that we hang our 
heads in shame and admit the soundness of their 
argument. 

In Italy, since the adoption of the constitution, 
the people enjoy freedom almost equal to a re- 
public; in fact, the Italians will tell you they 
are the most free people on earth, but I would 
certainly question that. There is no color preju- 
dice in Italy by the native Italian. Some col- 
ored people fought with Garibaldi's army for 
the freedom of Italy. In Germany a similar 
condition as exists in Great Britain largely ob- 
tains. Negroes are not found to a large extent 
in Europe. Several have obtained prominence 
and international reputation as artists, novelists, 
writers, soldiers and musicians. The argument 
may be advanced that if the Negroes were not 
in such large numbers in America, and steadily 
increasing, conditions would be different. The 
presence of the large numbers should call forth 
no injustice and wrong treatment. Treat a man 
like a brute and the brute element within him 



454 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

will eventually gain complete mastery and the 
man becomes a brute; but treat him like a man 
and a man he will prove. I believe that every- 
one who has the higher power of thought should 
have the political education and commercial 
rights that belong to America — excelling on 
all other lines, should try to excel all other na- 
tions in its broad and magnanimous treatment 
of all colored people, and the prompt payment 
of all its just and approved debts. When this 
is done, its citizens traveling abroad will never 
have cause to hang their heads in shame for their 

beloved land. 

Durham, N. C. 



AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW OF THE 
NEGRO QUESTION 

Part of an address delivered before the faculty and students of 

Shaw University, by Prof. G. E. Davis, Ph. D., 

Dean of Biddle University. 

(Contributed for tliis book.) 

"The question may be asked — what is our 
greatest problem? There are several great prob- 
lems that constantly present themselves to the 
American people. Education, Temperance, 
Labor and Capital, Trusts and Railroads, Im- 
perialism and foreign immigration. Then, last 
but not least, "The Negro Problem," or, better 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 455 




PROFESSOR G. E- DA^'TS, PH. D. 



456^ HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Stated, "The Problem of the Races." This last 
is the greatest because it touches and influences 
all the others. It touches American life at every 
point. My only apology for bringing before you 
a subject with which most of you are no doubt as 
familiar as I am, is that my view may not lead 
altogether in the beaten track. My line of de- 
parture may be different. Innumerable reapers 
have put their sickle into the sunny field, but the 
harvest is so abundant that even the search of a 
wayward gleaner may be rewarded with a sheaf. 

Today, no man is courageous enough to say 
with confidence wiiat the ultimate solution will 
be. He who asserts it is either an idiot or a fool. 

It is being more generally accepted as a fact 
that in contributing a degree of light upon the 
subject, that the Negro is the only one of the 
darker races that has proven capable of looking 
the Anglo-Saxon in the face at short range and 
continuing to live in a progressive manner. It 
is a question to be determined if the rising 
tawny national powers of the East upon the 
higher and broader plane of nationality can 
withstand what by many is held to be the in- 
evitable contest for supremacy. We believe the 
results will be determined by the measure in 
which the Christian religion is embraced. In 
our own land it seems to be certain that there 
can never be absolute separation of the Negro 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 457 

from the white race, fundamentally, because 
they have the same religion. Their forms and 
object of worship are identical and their creeds 
and creedal sources are the same. The sameness 
of social, civil and political institutions of the 
country also have a significant and important 
bearing upon the question. The true and only 
solution of our greatest problem is worthy of 
consideration. 

I hold that it is to be found only in the Bible 
and the principles of which Jesus Christ is the 
embodiment. Looked at in the light of experi- 
ence, which has been sufficiently varied, we find 
sufficient grounds for our conclusions. 

(i) Political methods have not accom- 
plished the results contemplated, although they 
have not been failures or barren of beneficent 
results. When the Negro was given the right of 
franchise, it was hoped that a weapon was put 
into his hands with which he might fight his 
way to the heights of citizenship ; but in the South 
his vote was counted as suited the convenience 
of political exigency of the Democratic Party— 
as is attested by the suflfrage clauses of the South- 
ern States' Constitutions and Election Laws, 
enacted in harmony therewith. 

The white South showed its opposition: (a) 
By the Black Code enacted under the policy of 
Andrew Jackson, (b) By the KuKlux organi- 



458 



HOLM'S R.\CE ASSIMILATION 



zations during reconstruction, (c) By fraud 
and as little violence as possible from 1878 to 
1895, when it was discovered by Southern polit- 
ical leaders that the Federal Government was 
not strong enough to enforce the constitution in 
the interests of the whole people alike. 

(2) It has been proposed to colonize the 
Negro. To this both the Negro and his white 
fellow citizen will ofTer stubborn resistance- 
even if a territory in which to colonize him 
could be found— a thing practically impossible 
for several reasons, so evident they will not be 
mentioned. 

It is no longer a question if the black man and 
the white man can live together here in the 
South on terms of civil and political equality. 
God, by His providence, seems to say they must. 
The white man will be helped to be more chari- 
table and less fearful of the bugbear of social 
equality if he will take time to study the better 
side of Negro life. The records of the courts 
are not the only places to go for statistics. 

We have our criminal class — far too numer- 
ous, we admit. But there are others. 

The Negro cannot be colonized because of 
his relation to the industrial forces of the coun- 
try. The South boasts of a civilization instinct 
with dignity and grace. The New South, 
springing Phoenix like, from the ashes of the 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 459 

old, is forging fast forward to the very front rank 
in industrial and economic importance, A fair 
minded and Christian people will be slow to 
forget that, beneath all her glory, past, present 
and to come, has been and will continue to be the 
Negro's brawny arm. It is his toil that has 
cleared the forests, cultivated her fields, covered 
her hills with fleecy whiteness, and her plains 
and valleys with golden grain. 

The causes which bind us to the South are 
stronger than were the bonds of slavery; they are 
not only social and political; they are ethnic and 
climatic. The one unalterable element on the 
industrial side of the problem is climate. State 
and national political bodies cannot legislate it 
out of existence. 

The white races of the globe have never 
labored successfully and continuously upon 
fields where the snow seldom falls. In all the 
countries of the globe south of the Tropic of 
Cancer, one of the cardinal canons of the white 
man's faith is the ability to live without physical 
toil. It was this more than anv other cause, 
that made the South cling so tenaciously to the 
Institution of slavery. All the subtropical coun- 
tries of the globe present similar Industrial prob- 
lems. Great Britain has a similar one In India. 
Egypt and the Israelites had it in ancient times. 
The cancer of caste seems to cling to the Tropic 



460 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

of Cancer. When the white man can change the 
climate, it will be time enough for us to fear the 
colonization of the Negro and the importation 
of white field labor. A vertical sunbeam makes 
the white man inert physically. It is upon the 
darker races, therefore that the South must de- 
pend for physical strength in the development 
of her great natural resources. It is to his physi- 
cal prowess that she must look for the mining 
of her coal, iron and copper, for the building of 
her great railroads, for the draining of her 
swamps and the building of her great inland 
water ways, which will soon make the South the 
richest part of the Union, and for the cultivation 
of her farm lands, hundreds of acres of which 
are being abandoned every year by the "poor 
whites," who are swarming into the factories 
springing up all over the South. Not only on 
the farm, but in other lines of industry and 
artisan skill, the Negro is demonstrating his 
skill. The cities of the South, with their resi- 
dences of grace and beauty, now almost ven- 
erated with age, are standing monuments to the 
Negro's mechanical skill, while yet a slave, and 
his hand has not yet forgot its cunning. 

Let it be said with credit to the South, that 
the black man is given employment and excellent 
wages as a mechanic. In the city of Charlotte, 
the largest hotel between Atlanta and Baltimore 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 461 

is largely the work of colored mechanics. These 
privileges are denied us at the North. 

I think I have shown that the interests of the 
two races are so indissolubly bound together that 
they ought to strive to kno\v each other better. 
When men like Henry Watterson and Governor 
Hughes make such public utterances in defence 
of the rights of the Negro as were made the 
other day, I think there is ground for encourage- 
menu. It is a hopeful sign of the times that in- 
telligent and law-abiding Negroes may come to- 
gether in such assemblies as this, even in the 
Capital of the State, under the shadow of the 
temple of justice, and freely and fearlessly dis- 
cuss such questions as affect his progress and 
relations to the republic of which he forms a 
part. 

It has not always been thus, and even when 
such opportunity has come, often more harm 
than good has been done by harsh and in- 
temperate orators, who have sought to impress 
upon a credulous public their own astuteness 
rather than the lasting good. It is not altogether 
in our favor that we are a race of orators. There 
are too many who want to pose as leaders and 
too few are willing to work in a circumscribed 
sphere, achieving permanent and beneficial re- 
sults as individuals. 

I come now to state another reason why colon- 



4«2 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

ization cannot be thought of. Not only will the 
white South oppose it for reasons given, but the 
Negro himself, will not consent to it. I do not 
stand here as an apologist for the wrongs suffered 
here by my people. 

• There are a few who are disposed to deny that 
the Negro has his full quota of troubles — 
troubles that come to him because of his contact 
with the dominant race in whose midst he lives. 
I am not here tonight to speak harshly of the ex- 
slaveholder nor of his immediate successor, in 
whose midst we are today. I am loval to the 
South. * * * Yhe Southern born Negro 
does not know how to hate his white fellow-citi- 
zen. He would not if he could. We are going 
to work out our destiny here. I verilv believe 
that, whatever may be the storms that ruffle the 
surface, there is a genuine feeling of regard and 
interest on the part of the educated and thought- 
ful white people of the South for the Negroes 
w^ho are striving day by day, to rise above the 
tyranny of "low birth'' and "iron fortune." 

The thoughtful student of history will not 
wonder that the white South reo^arded the 
Negro, at the time of his emancipation, as the 
cause of all his woes. Yet, time will eradicate 
that bitterness. 

Even as it is, he sells our town lot and our 
farms; he contributes of his means for the sup- 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 463 

port of our churches. The Negro's note is good 
at the white man's bank. He has accumulated 
in the South, 187,000 farms. From poverty and 
penury he has advanced to the possession of 
$450,000,000 worth of farm lands and $170,000,- 
000 worth of personal property, making a total 
of $620,000,000. Most of this wealth is in the 
South. 

He has been able to do this or much of it on ac- 
count of the tolerance and friendship of the best 
and most representative business men of the 
country. We see, therefore, that both races have 
a duty to perform. The white man should 
encourage the Negro and it is our duty to do all 
we can, by all honorable means, to win and re- 
tain the respect and confidence of our well dis- 
posed neighbor. 

We will never leave the South. We are a 
part of its civilization. The black man of the 
South says to the white man of the South, in the 
language of Ruth to Naomi : "Whither thou 
goest I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will 
lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy 
God my God; where thou diest I will die and 
there will I be buried." 

To the white race wisdom should suggest that 
they encourage the Negro by removing from his 
path every barrier to his material and educa- 
tional advancement, safe-guard his home and his 



464 HOLM'S RACE ASSLMILATION 

citizen-rights and make him to feel that he is 
not an alien in the land that gave him birth. 

The black man's efficiency and usefulness will 
be in direct proportion to his happy and con- 
tented condition. The race has at its command 
a certain amount of vitality. Just in proportion 
as that energy is expended over legal disabil- 
ities, unjust laws, unequal educational oppor- 
tunities and restrictions in the battle for bread 
in that larger sense in which "the life is more 
than meat and the body than raiment" will he be 
rendered less efficient in the output of useful 
labor. I am optimistic enough to believe this 
kind of encouragement will come. 

With the relative advance of both races in the 
civic virtues and material progress, there is a 
growing mutual respect which lessens friction. 
Chief reliance though for the accomplishment of 
this result must be put upon the reign of Christ 
in the hearts of men. 

There will always be racial peculiarities and 
distinctions and these may be insisted upon, and 
yet it must remain forever true that two peoples, 
living side by side, speaking the same language, 
nurtured in the same faith and looking loyally 
and lovingly into the face of Jesus Christ, will 
live harmoniously and peacefully together. 

I bring you, therefore, my friends, tonight, a 
message of optimism. There is much to make 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 465 

the present bright — the future hopeful. Let us 
not be pessimists! Leaders among us put too 
much stress on unfortunate conditions which at 
the present time surround us. God cannot use 
a discouraged people. Too much emphasis here 
produces a morbid and dissatisfied condition. 
The Negro is better situated here than in any 
other part of the world. We must not expect 
too much. The Afro-American's progress is un- 
precedented in all the annals of history. 

(i) In education. Illiteracy has been re- 
duced from loo per cent to 44 per cent. 

(2) In material development. 

(3) Religious progress. In reaching this 
vantage ground, it is but fair to state that we 
have been more effectually aided than other peo- 
ples have been. ( i ) By being in touch with an 
advanced civilization. (2) By the combined 
effort of Christian people through schools and 
churches. (3) By the reactionary forces of op- 
position. And this last has not been the least 
important agent in the Negro's advancement, as 
it is a crucial test of his right to be and to share 
benefits of civilization. 

A writer has said: "Were I to choose a fam- 
ily that would live, I would have it endure hard- 
ships and persecutions, were I to choose one to 
die, I would give it pleasure and luxury." 

The Jew, scourged in every land under 

30 



466 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATIOX 

Heaven, robbed of his lands, driven from his 
pastoral life by relentless persecution, has yet ad- 
vanced and prospered and multiplied, in every 
clime and under every form of government in 
the world. The Negro must not expect to be an 
exception. The Saxon has arrived through 
blood and toil and hardship. 

History is full of movements that are big w^ith 
injustice. The progress of mankind has been 
through head winds. The course has seldom 
been a straight one as man planned, but a 
crooked one, as man made it, like a ship beat- 
ing its way against hard and furious weather, 
she does not always point to the goal, but there 
is gain in the stretch. The movement is zig- 
zag but the resultant is progress toward the final 
goal. 

The law of struggle is the law of life; a severe 
law, but the providence of God, and, in the long 
run, the law through which comes all human 
achievement and progress. 

Our lot in this country is indeed a hard one 
and a grave responsibility rests upon the edu- 
cated class among us. To all such I wish to say 
there is much we can do to make our condition 
more tolerable. By tact and courtesy, by judici- 
ous avoidance of topics that arouse useless con- 
tention, by quietly developing along these lines 
where there is no conflict, by the acquisition of 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 467 

wealth and education, by untiring and unob- 
trusive expression of good feeling and by the 
sedulous cultivation of the law of Christian love, 
let us endeavor to win over those who are our 
enemies because they think we are theirs. Let 
no man imagine that I condone or encourage or 
advise voluntary humiliation. Every one con- 
demns the frown-fearing, smile-courting, hat-in- 
hand Negro. 

True manliness is respected in white and black 
alike. Our hard and rugged pathway is not our 
greatest calamity. England beheaded its kings. 
Cromwell had his wars. France had its Bar- 
tholomew and its Reign of Terror. The rivers 
of Germany ran red with human blood. 

And, now, a concluding word by way of appli- 
cation. I sometimes fear that the greatest danger 
of the Negro's failure is more internal than ex- 
ternal. His conduct in public places is often far 
from what it should be. 

The refined and respectable members of the 
race are humiliated and disgraced by a class of 
lawless ruffianswho infest our depots and coaches 
set aside for colored people, who have no respect 
for law. We are ashamed of them but helpless. 
The unjust and cruel law which forces upon us 
the "Jim Crow" car law would be a little more 
tolerable if there were some way of getting rid 
of the "Jim Crow" Negro who seems never 
happier than when loitering around the stations. 



468 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Another internal trouble: In nearly all our 
cities there are among our people lodges and 
burial associations, good and of great value 
when properly conducted. But I confess it pains 
me to see our people living in squalor and being 
buried in luxury. It is a mistake to give a one 
hundred dollar funeral to a fifty cent Negro. 

Again, there is another serious drawback, in 
the existence of a class of easy-going citizens, 
who infest the town and live by the sweat and 
toil of wife, mother or daughter over wash tubs 
or in cook rooms, while they live as gentlemen 
(?) of leisure or furnish the courts with crim- 
inals. Let us give no tolerance to these idle and 
vicious people. They do the race irreparable 
harm. 

In his business life the Negro has many les- 
sons to learn. Whatever may be said of his mis- 
fortune in politics — his failure in business and 
professional life is due to himself. It is true 
that the failure of the Freedman's Saving Bank, 
officiated at the time by Negroes, but really mis- 
managed by heartless white men from the North, 
created a distrust for banks in general and col- 
ored banks in particular, which more than 
twenty-five years have not served to eradicate. 
The result has been that funds have been with- 
held which, if properly invested, would have 
helped the race on material lines. We have yet 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 46^ 

to learn the advantages of partnership and of 
mutual support. 

Respect for our professional men: We have 
not yet come to a proper realization of the im- 
portance of properly supporting our professional 
men. * * * in the ultimate analysis, it is 
in the home that the Negro's status is to be solved. 
The girls and women of the race will fix the 
destiny and the character of the race. "She who 
rocks the cradle rules the race." Well may it 
be said: "The soul's armor is never well set 
to the soul unless braced by the hand of a woman, 
and it is only when she braces it loosely that the 
vigor of manhood fails." Let us do what we can 
to preserve the purity of our women. It is a 
shameful truth that in some cities, at least, there 
are Negro men driving vehicles of public utility, 
with no visible support, who are agents of barter 
and sale of the virtue of our women. 

We must exercise more care in the selection of 
associates for our children, and social lines must 
be drawn. 

I have spoken thus freely, perhaps too freely 
for some, because the educated class among us 
feel the burden of these shortcomings. The great 
mass of our people are so steeped in ignorance 
that they do not feel the burden. The cultured 
class read, think, judge and philosophize and 
their sufferings are too often seen in the deep 
lines of anxiety on cheek and brow. 



470 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

We are looking, my friends, for the dawn of 
a brighter day. Truth must win. Once de- 
veloped it remained stationary for ages. The 
sun may be obscured by the clouds for a month, 
but the vegetation does not go back into the 
ground. It remains and waits the certain coming 
of the genial sun. 

"Some of these days all skies will be brighter, 
Some of these days all the burdens be lighter. 
Hearts will be happier, souls will be whiter,- 
Some of these days. 

"Some of these days, in deserts uprising. 
Fountains shall flash while the joy bells are ringing, 
And the world with its sweetest of birds shall go singing, 
Some of these days. 

"Some of these days, let us bear with our sorrow. 
Faith in the future — its light we may borrow. 
There will be joy in the garden tomorrow — 
Some of these days." 



INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE RACES 

(Contributed for this book.) 

By Prof. William Pickens, 

The leading young Negro linguist in America. 

This is a modification of one of the sub- 
jects that was suggested to me. Carnal 
intercourse, thank heaven, is not the only 
variety of contact possible between two races 
that live together as the white and black 





*^^.~ , 







Air. and Airs. Wilham Pickens present one of the many striking 
examples of mtermarnage in the South between the dark-skinned 
Aegro and the white-skinned colored Caucasian, confirminc. our as- 
sertion that dissimilarities cross for evolutionary growth 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 471 

races live in the United States. It is pos- 
sible for the two races to have more good re- 
lations than bad ones. I was asked if illicit inter- 
course was equally hurtful to the morals of both 
races. That is like asking if the same thing that 
will hurt a white man, will also hurt a black 
man. It reminds me of Shylock. I know of no 
such difference in the natural make-up of a black 
person or a white person, that will make either 
one physically, morally or intellectually invul- 
nerable where the other is vulnerable. Any sort 
of illicit commerce between the races must have 
the same effect on each. Neither reason nor 
recorded experience indicates any other conclu- 
sion. Some one might conclude, before taking a 
second thought, that as such intercourse is prac- 
ticed in America it hurts only the manhood of 
the white race, while it harms the womanhood 
of the black race. But now for the ''second 
thought" — what about the white womanhood of 
the future, and the black manhood of the future? 
Will not the future white womanhood come out 
of the present white manhood, and will not the 
future black manhood depend for its moral 
stamina upon the present black womanhood? 

But there is also much good intercourse be- 
tween the races. An increase in such good inter- 
course would increase good opinion of each other 
and would thereby tend to decrease the different 



472 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Species of bad intercourse. It is a strange fact of 
individual human nature that the lower one 
esteems certain other persons, the less careful will 
he be in his conduct toward them and with them. 
It is a high respect for our neighbors that helps 
to brace our own characters. It seems to be put- 
ting the cause for the effect, but there is less 
illicit intercourse between those classes of the 
races which each recognizes as the "better class" 
of the other. It is a case where the effect is par- 
tial cause and the cause partial effect. Bad inter- 
course, however intimate it may be, does not 
tend to clear up misunderstanding between the 
races. Good, legitimate, cordial relations would 
occasion better understanding. And misunder- 
standing is the mother of a good deal of mischief. 
One of the reasons why a white man gets along 
better with a white man than he gets along with 
a Negro is that the white man understands a 
w^hite man better. Perfect understanding does 
not exist in the same race even. Some mind took 
a pessimistic turn and described the world of men 
as a number of little human islands screaming 
across oceans of misunderstanding. It is perhaps 
not quite so bad as that in all the world, but it is 
somewhat like that between the two races in the 
United States. The condition undermines mutual 
confidence. How often have I, in conversation 
with intelligent Negroes, found it necessary to 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 473 



'^.j 



P?A 




MASTER WM. PICKENS AND HIS LITTLE SISTER, HATTIE IDA. 

Striking contrast in parents nearly always means superior 
offspring in the Negro race. Like should never marry like in the 
Negro or any other race. 



474 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

defend the simple proposition "that there are 
some just and fair and trustworthy white people 
in the world"! And how often have you, white 
reader, heard such a discussion, respecting the 
entire Negro race, carried on by intelligent white 
people ! It simply shows what thoughts and feel- 
ings our ignorance of each other can engender. 

A little contact between the better elements of 
the two races helps even the strongest-minded of 
us. We are all influenced alike by ignorance of 
one another. We are all equally subject to the 
laws of God and nature, whatever inequalities 
might be written into the laws of man. 1 myself 
get a better opinion of the white race whenever 
I shake hands and have a cordial conversation 
with a first-class member of the white race. And 
sometimes I am in sore need of such improve- 
ment of opinion. And many a time after such 
a conversation have I heard the white person 
say, "Ah, you greatly encourage me"! Many a 
time after speaking to white audiences in the 
North or mixed audiences in the South the white 
people have come forw^ard to say, "You have 
done great good today; if we could only hear 
such talks of tener, we should understand so much 
better." There are white people in my town 
whose best knowledge of the Negro race is 
limited to the very ordinary and sometimes not 
very honest person who cooks their food or drives 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 475 

their carriage or blacks their boots. Such a white 
person has the great misfortune of not knowing 
the Negro race at all and the greater misfortune 
of thinking that he knows it very well. There 
is the white man who never entered a Negro 
home except to ferret out some rascal and take 
him to jail, and of course, that white man feels 
sure that "Negroes are criminals." Ignorance is 
the mother of most of our illwords and illwill. 

Mere physical contact of buying and selling 
over counters, of using the same streets and to a 
certain extent, the same public places, of riding 
on the same train in our "separate" cars and of 
jostling each other on our crowded thorough- 
fares, is not a good basis for many important 
conclusions respecting each other. And yet this 
is the whole content of many a white man's mind 
when he says, "I know the Negro; I have lived 
with 'em for years." I have lived thus with thou- 
sands of people whom I never shall know. A 
certain white man in Alabama whom I see nearly 
every day, is not as well known to me as a certain 
white man in New York whom I have seen just 
once. 

Our industrial relations make us a little better 
acquainted. In the "independent trades," like 
brick masonry, carpentry, etc., blacks and whites 
have worked side by side for years. In the de- 
pendent trades, factory work, etc., the white em- 



476 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

plover has separated the whites and blacks or cut 
the blacks out altogether. The fact that the in- 
dustrial classes of the two races work together 
harmoniously when they are independent of any 
employer seems to contradict the frequent asser- 
tion that the main opposition to the Negro is 
from this class of whites. It is very probable that 
the white leaders, especially the politicians, by 
their policies and speeches often cause bad feel- 
ing where good relations would otherwise exist 
between the simple, plain people of the two 
races. In different parts of the South I have 
seen the "common people" of the tw^o races 
mingling at street fairs with much cheer and 
laughter, where a thirty minutes' harangue from 
an office-hunter with a lot of "social equality" 
dope in his bag, would raise a cry for human 
blood. 

Causes which are perfectly understood when 
looked at historically, have given the Negro a 
much better industrial opportunity in the South 
than in the North. There are places in the North 
where the Negro is at full liberty to spend his 
money in first-class theaters, hotels, etc., but his 
privilege to earn money is limited to the most 
menial positions. There are places in the South 
which present the opposite condition, the Negro 
having practically unlimited industrial oppor- 
tunities, but being very much restricted at pres- 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 477 

ent in his opportunities to spend well what he 
earns. As between the two evils I should choose 
the Southern one,- for a people that are allowed 
to earn money will finally create their own op- 
portunities to spend it, while those who are re- 
stricted in their right to earn cannot always main- 
tain their privilege to spend. There are some in 
the North who do not object to the rights of the 
Negro in any particular, but who object to his 
physical presence. They simply do not want him 
in their community, that is all. Their love for 
the Negro increases directly as the square of the 
distance between them and the Negro. The 
Negro's case is full of humorous contradictions. 
A heathen from Africa or Asia, after listen- 
ing to one of our missionaries preach, would 
naturally expect to find in America a very cor- 
dial religious association between the races. But 
alas for the uninitiated heathen! Some of our 
religious principles do not include the other fel- 
low any more than the Jews included the 
Samaritans. By a sort of loose interpretation of 
the fierce and direct words of Jesus Christ we 
have narrowed "the brotherhood of man" to a 
dry figure of speech, something said for the want 
of something better to say. The Nazarene might 
have said thus and so, but he did not mean what 
he said. Before his plain words we have set a 
labyrinth of theology, so that the smartest of us 



478 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

cannot find our wa}^ to the essential truth. When 
the Bible was interpreted consistently with 
slavery it was all right for white persons and 
black persons to worship together sometimes, but 
it is not best in the case of free Negroes. One of 
the best missionary opportunities ever lost was 
the ex-master's opportunity for the spiritual ele- 
vation of the ex-slave. The separate church or- 
ganization is best for the Negro race, but the 
interest of white churches should not have been 
so early and so completely withdrawn. The 
Southern Methodist Church did well to keep 
up a long-continued interest in its Negro mem- 
bership. Many Negroes can be reached through 
religion who cannot be reached in any other way. 

A somewhat similar opportunity in the educa- 
tion of the race was lost. Separate schools, of 
course, were the only thing that would work, — 
and a statesman is never justified in trying to 
make a thing work which he knows will not 
w^ork. If the religious and educational contact 
had been maintained, the Negro would have been 
greatlv helped by the white man's experience and 
attainment and the white man would have been 
greatly blessed by really knowing and sympa- 
thizing with the best that is in the Negro race. 

The political future of this section, too, would 
be much brighter if the Negro should be trained 
into a normal relation to the politics of his own 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 479 

section rather than shoved aside according to the 
present system, — a system which it is utterly im- 
possible to maintain forever or for very long. 

And what do you suppose it is that has caused 
sensible American people to lose so many golden 
opportunities and to create such a strained, un- 
natural and half-barbarous situation? It is an 
undefined and indefinable something called "so- 
cial equality." It is comic enough to make the 
thoughtless laugh, and tragic enough to make the 
thoughtful weep. What is "social equality"? I 
do not like to make sport of the apparently deep 
feelings of other people, but, seriously, I have 
lived in the South for twenty-eight years, but I 
have never seen or heard a definition of the term. 
I have often known white people to say that "so- 
cial equality" is something that they do not want, 
but that seems to me to be too broad a definition 
to enable me to tell it from a rattlesnake, a case 
of yellow fever or a Negro President. What 
does it mean? If it means bad intercourse be- 
tween the races, then I am with the w^hite man — 
no "social equality" for me. If it means all inter- 
course, both good and bad, opposition to it is 
futile; for some sort of intercourse between these 
two races there will be, regardless of the wishes 
of individuals. The only effect that the human 
will can produce is to determine WHAT KIND 
OF INTERCOURSE it shall be. Let us have 
relations of the mutually ennobling sort. 



480 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

The next generation is not bound to respect 
our wishes. And the word "always" ought never 
to be used in reference to the American race 
conditions, especially where the Negro is con- 
cerned. What the slave-owners of 1849 called 
perpetual, the people of 1909 call ancient. But 
for the present we are two races, and all of us 
who are now living can feel sure that we shall die 
and leave two races. The claim for "natural 
antipathy" between the races is not well founded. 
An instinctive antipathy would at least be con- 
sistent. And I do not need to point out to you 
the inconsistencies in the so-called natural an- 
tipathy of the races, especially when it comes to 
the "bad intercourse." In some courts where 
legal sexual intercourse between the races has 
been declared a statutory crime, immoral sexual 
intercourse is hardly punished as a misdemeanor. 
A strange reversal of the laws of God and nature. 

"Social equality" is a phrase to conjure with, 
it is the one invisible god to whom almost all 
heads bow. It even dominates to an extent the 
thinking of the Negro, whenever a Negro begins 
to speak for the rights of his race he feels it 
necessary to tell the world that he is not an 
aspirant after "social equality" or a defender 
thereof. 

And I would not abate one whit from the 
white man's pride of race. I would add to it. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 481 

I would make him so proud of his own race that 
he would scorn to do injustice to any other race. 
I would make him so proud of his own family 
that he would honor the very name of family in 
all races and classes, — so fond of his own chil- 
dren that he would concede a black boy a chance 
for life. 

The Negro's presence in this country has cer- 
tainly created certain opportunities for both 
races. I am not discussing the question as to 
whether it was a good thing on the whole, or a 
bad thing for both races, that the Negro was 
brought here. That is a very foolish question,— 
for whether it be answered in the affirmative or 
in the negative, the fact remains the same that 
the NEGRO IS HERE NOW. That would 
have been a profitable question to discuss pre- 
vious to 1619. But now that the Negro is here, 
the only thing worth considering is, how can we 
make the best of it, of a bad bargain, if you will? 
Time is worse than wasted in foolish wailing 
about the fact that the Negro was brought here. 
Spilt milk can sooner be gathered from sand into 
the pail again than the Negro race of the United 
States can ever be gathered again into its father- 
land,— or rather into its MOTHERland, for the 
FATHERland of a large part of the race is 
Europe. 

The presence of the Negro in the South ofifers 

31 



482 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

to Southern industries a better supply of labor 
suited to those industries than has any other 
country of similar industries anywhere else in 
the world. We have heard much talk of immi- 
gration but there is no immigration from any- 
where that will soon take the Negro's place 
in the South. To the Negro is offered the 
best opportunity he has anywhere in the 
world for a high degree of Industrial efficiency. 

To the Christian Church is offered an unsur- 
passed opportunity for practical versus theoretic 
BROTHERHOOD,— or to prove that the 
whole thing is all talk. 

To the American Government is offered the 
best test of the principles that underlie its foun- 
dation. Or is that all talk? 

The Negro race is strong and will grow 
stronger in this country, thus offering to the 
white race its best chance to measure its strength 
by the strength of another, and not by the weak- 
ness of another, a chance to be the strongest of 
the strong, and not merely the least weak of the 
weak, — a real chance to prove the white man's 
real superiority. Or is that all talk? 

Wm. Pickens, 

Talladega College, Talladega, Ala. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 483 

ECONOMIC LAW DEMANDS FREE- 
DOM OF MARRIAGE 

BY JAMES E. MCGIRT 

Scholar, Author, Editor of McGirt's Magazine. 

You ask that I write you a paper on the sub- 
ject: "Do you believe that the illicit mixing of 
the races ought to be abolished, and a legal mar- 
riage provision take its place in the entire coun- 
try?" and "Do you believe that intermarriage, 
instead of illicit mixing, would improve the 
morals of both races? 

While you ask me to do this, I must state that 
it comes in a most inopportune time, therefore 
it is impossible for me to write on them at 
length; however, I shall state my position in a 
few words. I shall approach the subject fairly 
and squarely without expressing the opinion or 
caring for the prejudices of black or white men 
and from the viewpoint of the student of society. 

The science of economy teaches that economic 
freedom is absolutely necessary for the highest 
development of any people, and that a nation 
which does not give the highest economic free- 
dom, or tries to interfere with that freedom, may 
succeed for a time but eventually must fail of 
its highest development. 

There are seven kinds of economic freedom 
which are accepted by the leading countries, and 



484 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




JAMICS E. McGIRT. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 485 

while these are accepted by the United States, 
the Negro is excluded from some of them and 
especially from the first and most important, 
namely, freedom of marriage and association. 
From this viewpoint, it is not hazarding too 
much to say that economic progress demands 
that these limitations be done away with. 

The country cannot get the best out of itself 
or out of the Negro so long as these limitations 
are allowed. They are un-economic, therefore 
unnatural and despite laws and prejudices, 
MUST GO. To show how important the law 
is, let us illustrate: Economy says that "any 
sane man and woman of some character, if they 
both be willing without outside pressure on the 
part of the State, should marry," in other words, 
there should be freedom of marriage, "Negroes 
and whites shall not marry," says the law. Now, 
marriage, economically speaking, is a mating of 
males and females, and its chief purpose is to 
increase and preserve the population. To have 
children is the chief aim of marriage from the 
viewpoint of the economist. But the law steps in 
and says that "there shall be no marriage be- 
tween the colored and white people." ^ But what 
does it accomplish? Nothing, only to retard the 
working of economic law. For it indeed pro- 
hibits marriage but does not prevent children. 
The fact that the race of mulattoes is constantly 



486 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

increasing and increasing more today than ever 
before, is ample evidence of the impotency of 
legislative statutes to prohibit the mating of men 
and women of different classes and the birth of 
children from their intercourse. 

This is w^hy I do not advocate social equality 
or amalgamation or miscegenation or any other 
such unnecessary thing; for it does no more good 
to advocate or oppose these than it does to op- 
pose or advocate gravitation or evolution or the 
course of the stars. They are fixed by higher 
laws than those made by human legislation. 

Philadelphia. 



MISCEGENATION AND ITS BANEFUL 

EFFECTS 

By Bishop Alexander Walters, A. M., D. D. 

(Contributed for tliis book.) 

One of the greatest crimes committed against 
the Negro race has been the degradation of its 
women by white men, often of intelligence, 
wealth and influence. And the saddest part of 
it is that the men of the boasted superior race 
with all the advantages in their favor, have been 
protected in this nefarious business by drastic 
legislation. 




^'-rr — 



/ 



r 







BISHOP ALEXANDER WALTERS. 



OR THE FADING LEORARD'S SPOTS 487 

In this Christian civilization, this boasted 
"Home of the brave and land of the free," one 
whole section of this land has made every child 
born of a colored woman by a white father an 
illegitimate child, no matter how desirous the 
parties are of being united in holy wedlock. 

Laws which prohibit such marriages are con- 
trary to the laws of nature and the law of God 
as embodied in the Golden Rule, and they are 
inimical to the best interests of mankind. 

The good people of this country should be- 
gin at once to create sentiment, where they have 
not done so, for the repeal of such laws. 

A wise Providence has overruled a great deal 
of this wickedness to the good of our land. 

Some of the brightest intellects of our country 
are the product of concubinage. I could name 
some of the greatest and most useful men of our 
country who were and are of illegitimate birth, 
such as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Wash- 
ington, etc. 

Amalgamation bet^veen whites and blacks and 
its frequency throughout the American Republic 
are the best arguments that can be produced 
that the white man considers the black woman 
his equal, and ought to forever set at rest this 
question which every now and then bobs up that 
the Negro is a beast and hasn't any soul. Surely 
white men of intelligence, wealth and influence 



488 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

would not have sexual intercourse in such a 
wholesale manner with beasts? 

These laws forbidding intermarriage of 
the races and the injustices resulting 
therefrom are crimes which are calling 
ALOUD TO Almighty God for vengeance, and 

WE ARE COAIPELLED TO SUFFER AS A NATION UN- 
TIL SUCH WRONGS ARE RIGHTED. 

I do not think we ought longer to compromise 
on this grave question, but ought to begin a 
crusade against it and continue until the laws 
are changed and men and women allowed to 
marry whomsoever they please. 

None but Almighty God and the women of 
the Negro race know the baneful effects which 
colored women have to suffer by such prohibi- 
tory laws. Speaking with a colored woman 
not long ago she said there is nothing so grind- 
ing, so crushing as to look into the face of a 
white woman and have her say by a sarcastic 
and withering look, "You are nothing but a 
'thing' to be used by our men — the laws are 
against you and all because of your color and 
race." 

I say again that prohibitory marriage laws, 
such as I have mentioned above, are a sad blot 
on the escutcheon of our land. 

A. Walters. 
New York City. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



469 




Jg^Jggl^^^/gJ 



the lives of 
individuals 
as in the lives of nations 
there is a central point 
from which radiates all 
inspiration to reach the 
(Contributed for this book.) higher attainments of 

moral, mental and physical existence, or from 
which the tendency in motion is down toward 
lethargy and degradation, by the relaxing of 
those forces which lead in the opposite direction. 
The previous social and moral condition of 
the Negro woman, her complete subjugation to 
the brute nature or animal passions of men of all 
stations in the society of both races, is too well 
known by students of social ethics to demand any 
lengthy discussion here. Yet, as these facts pre- 



490 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

sent fundamental relations to the subject of this 
contribution, it is really necessary to at least pay 
a passing notice to the principles here involved. 

Slavery, the most bitter and destructive in- 
stitution of any government, the most Satanic and 
degrading influence with which human society 
has had to do, formed and flourished in this 
country from ,1619 until the boys of blue and 
gray met upon the field of mortal combat and 
drenched the land in human blood. 

The colored woman pulling through the night- 
of slavery with hands chained to the plow, with 
mind chained to darkness and morals chained to 
the wicked lusts of the South's frightful horde 
of demoralized white and black men, found her- 
self on the morn of freedom, 

'A storm-beaten ark wildly hurled, 
O'er the whirlpool of time 
With the wrecks of a world." 

If in all this land there is a woman deserving 
the very highest commendation of the world, it 
is the colored woman. She has had the most dis- 
couraging obstacles of any woman in history 
placed so continuously in her pathway, until in 
the words of Edgar Allan Poe she cried 

Like that unhappy master, 
Whom unmerciful disaster 
Follows fast and follows faster." 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 491 

She is climbing with unfaltering steps the 
rugged path that leads to the sun-kissed moun- 
tain peak of liberty and glory, looking hopefully 
to the right and left for just one ray of the light, 
of righteousness, of justice, and encouragement; 
knowing that life is a series of successive heights 
to be climbed, the vantage of one reached bring- 
ing to view another height and a continued 
stepping stone to its attainment. 

The colored woman, as she is, when compared 
with her white sister who has thrown around 
her ail the protection that bravery, courage, and 
heroism have been able to produce, and all the 
wealth, culture and refinement of ages at her 
feet— represents a shipwrecked mariner drift- 
ing around on the waves of social darkness, out 
on the sea of national criticism, bravely pressing 
on toward the harbor of peace and higher moral 
and intellectual culture. 

She stands today tempted and tried as was 
Christ on the Mount, unaided, unprotected by 
the law^s of the land, working out her own sal- 
vation, and the salvation of her people whose 
future connection with the highest attainments 
of human genius is as certain as it is that the 
majestic Mississippi will flow to the gulf until 

The sun himself grows dim with age, 
And Nature sinks in years." 



492 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

She is the only woman today, in all this broad 
land, of whom it is not supposed, by a certain 
class of lawmakers and officers of the law of 
many of our states, that virtue and purity is 
prayed for and desired by her, as the mother of 
a great race of future American citizens. 

The question arises, therefore, after forty-five 
years of American semi-freedom — What is the 
present status of the Negro woman? 

I wish to say emphatically that the colored 
woman is beyond all reasonable doubts a fixity 
in the social economy of the nation; that in re- 
ligion, education and moral reformation she is 
contributing daily to the progress of the greatest 
age in the history of man. The home, which is 
the foundation of good government, is advancing 
from the one room cabin to the comfortable cot- 
tage, modern and sanitary in all its appoint- 
ments. The parlor contains the most modern 
musical instruments, books on music, art, liter- 
ature and science. The dining room and bed 
chamber are neat and attractive, suggestive of 
the most improved sense; and the whole home 
shows a work of improvement and progress 
along all lines. The art of music and painting, 
fancy-work and drapery have claimed such a 
large part of the Negro maidens' education, 
until we now have a refined, sensitive, neat-ap- 
pearing woman — indeed, a new woman with a 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 493 

new idea. All over the South we now find 
academies and high schools whose curriculums 
are abreast of the times. Many are especially 
designed for everyday business and professional 
usefulness, the walls of which are crowded with 
an army of colored girls thirsting for knowledge 
and anxious to undergo any honorable experi- 
ence, to assume any burdensome responsibility, 
only to reach the highest .attainments in the 
bounds of possible opportunity. 

The Negro woman as a teacher in the com- 
mon and higher schools of the South has proven 
a success. As a business woman she surprises 
the country. Many girls are now compounding 
medicine in drug stores run by Negroes, or are 
watching patients as trained nurses, and going 
on the rostrum as lecturers and organizers of 
clubs, etc., whose purpose it is to destroy the 
influence of error and establish the everlasting 
doctrine of the principles of truth. The educa- 
tion of the Negro woman along moral and in- 
tellectual lines has indeed been gratifying. 
* * * * 

She has had the saddest experience of any 
mortal in the world's history. She has passed 
through that dark, immoral, rapacious age, when 
virtue to her was a perfect stranger and morality 
sounded like a mockery. She was forced in some 
cases to be brutalized without the hope of redress 



494 HOLM'S RACE ASSLMILATIOX 

for the wrongs heaped upon her, thereby sowing 
the seeds of immorality and degeneracy, and 
committing (not at first by voluntary wishes) 
the unpardonable crime against law and society. 
But thank God her time has come; just beyond 
the hills of night we faintly see the daylight 
breaking. She will lift her voice and be heard, 
and demand her rights as an American woman. 

Sooner or later, by renouncing the horrible 
practice of illicit mixing of the past, she will be 
respected, regardless of her color. There is al- 
ready a decided concert of action on the part of 
Negro women everywhere, to remove the past 
with all its evil influences and illicit unions with 
white men of every class; and to regard any 
approach of white men as an unpardonable af- 
front to any decent woman. Unless the laws are 
so reformed, she may demand a legal union in 
spite of them. 

At the present rate of education and moral 
reformation she will some day reach the highest 
round in the ladder of womanly womanhood, 

virtue and intelligence. 

* * * * 

Let us start a movement today that may revo- 
lutionize the laws of some of our un-American 
states; revolutionize public sentiment. "Ah," 
you say, "you are ahead of the times! That is 
a perilous task!" I admit that it is. Better a 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 495 

perilous task to individuals than further degrade 
the manhood of the white race and the woman- 
hood of the colored race. Somebody must take 
the lead. This horrible tide of immorality must 
be more successfully checked. THE COL- 
ORED WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY 
MUST BE COMPLETELY EMANCIPA- 
TED FROM THE THRALLDOM OF THE 
PAST. 

I may be criticised, yes, severely so, for the 
stand I have taken in this matter; not only by 
members of the white race but by my own as 
well. However, that is a small matter to me, 
for every man and woman who has ever ad- 
vanced a new idea, or has advanced the interests 
of all the people, have always been severely 
criticised by friend and foe alike. 

Just as William Lloyd Garrison was when he 
heralded to the world the great issue of freeing 
the slaves. He was told his was an impossible 
task; that the state of the country did not admit 
it; that he would find opposition everywhere, 
north, south, east and west. Did he give up in 
despair? No. What did he do? He buckled 
on the armor of manhood, truth and justice, went 
out on the battle field of injustice, hatred and 
oppression of a downtrodden race, and won the 
victory as did David of old, when he went forth 
and slew the giant, Goliath. The true and good 



496 HOLM'S RACE A.SSIMILATION 

men and women of both races must go forth and 
slay the greatGoliath of moral depravity between 
the races, and bring about a condition that will 
give justice to the colored woman, and protect 
her as the mother of a race and as a woman. 

Before our great country can reach that broad 
plane of fairness and justice to all its citizens, 
without regard to race or color, the statesman- 
ship of the nation must rise pre-eminent to the 
unholy and sordid ambitions of politicians; must 
rise above the pitiful weakness of human preju- 
dice, into that bright haven of sunlight and 
righteousness, where men can look justice 
squarely in the face, and declare from hill-top 
and mountain peak that right is a principle as 
bright as the face of the sun, as everlasting as the 
throne of Jehovah. 

Then will the colored woman shake ofif her 
mantle of semi-slavery and take her proper place 
in the world's society; contributing to the glory 
of Christian civilization, and expand all reforms 
until the influence of peace, happiness and com- 
plete freedom shall spread and cover this broad 
land as the waters cover the mighty deep. 

Then, when the consumation of all time is near 
at hand, and the lion is ready to lay down with 
the lamb, God grant that I may look upon 
yonder deep blue sky and see in letters of gold — 
"ONE GOD, ONE FLAG, ONE PEOPLE." 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 497 

SOME THOUGHTS FOR BOTH RACES 
TO PONDER OVER 

By Anna D. Borden 

(Contributed for this book.) 

It is Strange and peculiarly interesting how 
some of our leading women claim they are igno- 
rant of existing social conditions. If we are 
standing sure and steadfast, if we are so far re- 
moved from unpleasant social conditions that 
there need be no alarm sounded, "What meaneth 
then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and 
the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" What 
meaneth then the many thousands of mulattoes 
annually born in the black race of the South? 
Even some of those who claim to be entirely 
ignorant of these conditions are mulattoes and 
quadroons themselves, and need to investigate 
why they are thus, and from whence came their 
foreign blood? I am sure they will find food 

for thought. 

•* * * 

I have heard some of our leading men proudly 
state, 'T am three-fourths white, only one-fourth 
black," or, "my father is white, therefore I am 
only one-half Negro." If that be true, please 
explain the conditions under which you became 
three-fourths or one-half white? In what atti- 
tude will that place the dearest person on earth 

32 



498 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

to you? Was she legally united to your father? 
Do you, as her child, lay a claim to legal inter- 
marriage? Remember, our parents cannot give 

us what they do not possess. 

* * * 

The leaders of the race, both men and women, 
are strangely, yes, deathly silent along reform 
lines of this kind. Some will readily condemn 
the mother of a mulatto yet marry that same 
mother's daughter and feel immensely proud 
of their yellow or white complexion. If you 
condemn the mother for illegal union condemn 
also the child of illegal amalgamated blood, and 
illegally brought into our race and society. If 
you are proud of your black face do not amal- 
gamate with a yellow or white complexioned col- 
ored woman and thereby "degrade" your off- 
spring with foreign blood, and vice versa. 

A few drops of Negro blood does not make a 
Caucasian a Negro, no more than a few drops 
of Caucasian blood makes a Negro white. It 
is inconsistent and cowardly to condemn amal- 
gamation and then amalgamate at the same time. 
"But," you say "the child is not to blame." I 
do not claim it is; but when a thing is wrong in 
one place it is wrong in another; and if you will 
sit quietly for just a short while and think deeply 
over this matter, you will agree with me that 
there is something radically wrong with our 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 499 

race and the society of the white race, and that 
a thorough reformation is needed to raise the 
Negro woman to a higher plane of truth and vir- 
tue, and responsible, recognized womanhood. 

* * -* 

"What! would you, a Negro woman, advocate 
amalgamation?" I do not. Amalgamation 
needs no advocacy. That process has long 
taken care of itself. \\'hcn you glance over this 
race of ours vou will admit this, I am sure. I 
advocate a reform to legalize it, or condemn it 
altogether, although such condemnation avails 
nothing. As a race we cannot longer silently 
endure the curse which this illicit mixing en- 
genders. 

Everv man and woman should enjoy the God- 
given privilege of choosing whom they will for 
their life companion, whether the person chosen 
be white or colored. No colored man or woman 
should be condemned by our race if they find 
and choose their affinity in the white race, if 
there be a mutual consent between them, and if 
they can legally obtain such a union anywhere 
in the world. It is their business and not the 
people's, if they are sane and responsible citi- 
zens. 

* -* * 

Some of our leaders claim that only the lower 
clement of both races crave for mixing. With 
them I cannot agree. 



500 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

Frederick Douglass, the greatest statesman the 
race has produced, with a race of all colors to 
choose from, stepped over the line and took unto 
himself a white woman, thereby proving to the 
world his belief in complete freedom from race 
prejudice — freedom, individually as well as col- 
lectively. That was his individual choice and 
by the laws of God he had a right to choose 

whom he desired. 

* * * 

A great majority of the substantial class of 
colored women believe as I do along this line, 
although they may only possess a vague idea of 
what ought to be and may be done to alleviate 
our condition. We have a number of letters 
bearing upon this subject, written by colored 
women who have had experience enough to 
know that a legal union with the opposite race 
would at once lift our womanhood out of the 
mire and clay into which we have been sunk by 
the lusts of men. The horde of immoral men 
in the South would hesitate to accost and insult 
a decent colored woman on the streets and else- 
where, if she were equally protected by law with 
her white sister. 

We have not space to submit in whole the let- 
ters in our possession, written to us by colored 
women, but we will quote a few paragraphs 
from several. One woman says: 



OR THE FADIN'G LEOPARD'S SPOTS 501 

"1 believe the colored woman cannot rise un- 
til she demands recognition, and a legal union 
with her paramour, be he white or black." She 
also savs: "To social equality, will say — that 
white men give the colored women social equal- 
ity in the dark, and it is the Negro woman's duty 
to rise and DEMAND a legal union." 

Another woman says: "I think we should be 
married to a white man that wants us, the same 
as a white woman. \\'hy do white men want us 
if they don't want us to keep house for them and 
have a home with them and raise our children 
in a decent, married way?" I know white men 
are not all to blame. So many of our colored 
women and girls in towns are after white men 
to get their money. That's all they caic for 
them; and they think we are all alike, but we 
are not. Many of us want good homes to take 
care of, and some one to love and care for us." 

One writer says: "T am a colored woman 
who has never had the least inclination toward 
a white man, but I know that we could only mix 
through a demoralizing method. I don't be- 
lieve in being unlawfully mixed up with any 
man, white or black; but do think that it was 
intended from the creation that we marry. As 
the case is today, there is no law to protect us in 
marrying a white man. * * I truly believe 
it (intermarriage) will help each race to be a 



502 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

better people, and stop much of the inhuman 
things that now exist." 

Another one writes: ''I feel that if we could 
be equally protected by law with white women, 
many of us would prefer white men, because we 
know very well that our race can only be really 
improved and elevated morally that way," etc., 

etc. 

* * * 

From all the bother, heartache and sorrow 
the white men give the colored women through- 
out the country, it seems to me that there must be 
something fascinating about us that they fail to 
find in women of their own race; yet it seems 
that many of their own women appear charm- 
ing and attractive. There must be something 
really valuable about us, for from all appear- 
ances their affection for us is in most cases gen- 
uine. A poem written to a yellow Negro girl 
by a talented white man fell into our hands, 
which, we believe, testifies to this fact without 
further arguments being necessary here. The 
author has consented to publish it on the follow- 
ing page with an appropriate illustration. 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 



503 




YOU'RE the only one most precious, 

In this weary, toilsome strife; 

When you gather summer flowers, 

Gather one into my life, 

Let my soul attune and sing it, 

You are sweeter than a rose ; 

But the color line divides us — 

How sad my heart, nobody knows, nobody knows! 



504 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

OH ! pray tell me, little treasure. 

Is there sure no sweet relief? 

Is the way closed, can it open, 

Are we barred by our belief? 

Must I depart — leave you alone — 

Or this matter right dispose? 

For a color line divides us — 

How sad my heart, nobody knows, nobody knows! 

YOU are a bright little colored girl, 

One who my soul can adore. 

If I would say good-bye to you, 

I ne'er would see you any more; 

Would you be glad, I wonder. 

My little yellow rose? 

For a color line divides us — 

How sad my heart, nobody knows, nobody knows! 



THE COLORED WOMAN ON THE 
PLANTATION 

And How She is R.^ised By Progress Made 

BY SOPHIA cox JOHNSON 

(Contributed for tliis book.) 

We are in the Black Belt where it is said that 
for every white person you meet there are four 
colored. On every hand the one-roomed cabin 
appears utterly filled with children who peep at 
you from behind half-open doors and shutter 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 505 

windows, while father is plowing and mother 
and the older ones are "howin in de fiel." 

Some eighteen years ago the idea of gather- 
ing the mothers of children taught in the mis- 
sion school together and forming, what is known 
as the Mothers' Meeting, was advanced by a 
worker who had been sent as a missionary. We 
arc told by those competent to judge that a 
stream can rise no higher than its source — hence, 
to have intelligent, honest children the parents 
must be reached in some manner. 

After considerable visiting and agitation, dur- 
ing which time some had gotten over their fear 
of "meetin dem teachers," the organization was 
formed. Lessons were assigned them in read- 
ing and writing and plans were outlined for dis- 
cussing subjects dear to every woman's heart. 
Can we understand enough of their condition 
to sympathize with these mothers; who had 
come from homes where nothing was known 
save "plowin and howin cotton, corn, 'taters, 
sugarcane and penders," often until Saturday 
noon, then knocking ofif to do the family wash- 
ing? No time to cook a decent meal even if it 
were known how. 

These mothers from the time they were large 
enough to hoe in their father's crop had the am- 
bition only to be the lead-hand in the field. And 
when married they had taken their turn at the 



506 HOLM'S RACE ASSLMILATION 

plow and scattering fertilizer and hoeing, often 
carrying the baby to the field and covering it 
under a shade tree while the work went on until 
the bell rang for noon. When all had gotten 
out, she must gather and cook her greens or 
fried meat and bread ere the bell rang for return 
to work. 

Their social life, if such it might be called, 
consisted during the leisure season of tramping 
from house to house eating peanuts and sugar 
cane, roasting potatoes and gossiping, with 
merry quiltings at which time young and old 
frolicked together for more than half the night. 

As for the men, after the strenuous days of 
plowing and planting were over, they were con- 
stantly hunting, squirrels by day and raccoons 
and opossums by night. Even in their churches 
religion consisted of learning the latest mourn, 
a kind of wierd sound echoing and re-echoing 
through the windowless shack, and trying to 
see who could shout the loudest and hold out 
the longest. 

Some women there were, too, who came from 
homes where the father of the children was not 
the husband, and the mother was known as the 
cook of that particular man, while some mothers 
who as real wives, looked askance at their neigh- 
bors, because their husbands were as often at one 
house as at another. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 507 



SOPHIA COX JOHNSON. 



508 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

And what differences in the color of the fam- 
ilies! Even as we so often achingly notice in 
many places. Brothers and sisters from the 
darkest shades of ebony to the fairest of the fair 
calling the same woman mother! Any who get 
close to humanity, either on the plantation or in 
the city, see enough to fully realize the condi- 
tions. Such then were the homes from whence 
these women came to learn to read and write; 
to hear talks concerning their home life; how 
to wash dishes; the necessity for having more 
than one room and how the house should be 
cleaned before going to work; care of the 
garden, chickens and cows, together with raising 
their children. 

Let us now notice some results of this work 
among the mothers. 

Several years later as we chance to be passing 
this way, we see a gray haired woman carrying 
a large printed Bible on her way to the Mothers* 
School. She has learned to read the precious 
Word which is the leading study, and many 
verses have been committed to memory. On 
entering her home we find in addition to that 
Bible, the "Life of Sister Moore" and her book 
"For Mother." There is a large class of such 
women now and several letters have been 
laboriously written to the same Sister Moore, 
and the hearts of the writers gladdened by 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 509 

answers to them. What means this addition to 
the house? One of the mothers has been seen 
cutting logs to build another room. On visiting 
another we find her bedroom divided by a cur- 
tain, thus providing another room for the chil- 
dren; still another has taken a box and with a 
curtain in front and shelves inside has a com- 
modious closet for storing away loose articles 
otherwise thrown under the bed or behind the 
door. 

At the close of the sessions of these winter 
schools for women open performances are given 
by the scholars who recite, read essays and de- 
bate on subjects pertaining to the home-life, 
often inviting the fathers to join. These 
mothers are now better members of the church. 
By learning to read the Word of God and com- 
mitting it to memory, they are able to follow the 
minister in his preaching and help greatly in 
selecting intelligent men as pastors. They pay 
their church dues willingly and aid in the re- 
pairs and painting of their own churches. As 
for education, they resolve that their children 
shall have what they see they failed to get. Even 
those who will not anger the ministers of the 
church, who have forbidden their attending the 
mothers' meetings because led by members of 
another denomination, will do double duty in 
the field that their children may be educated by 



510 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

competent teachers. Time enough has passed 
to show the results of such efforts on the chil- 
dren. Many of these plantation mothers are 
made happy by the receipt of letters containing 
gifts of money from daughters who are teach- 
ing. These daughters, many of whom have 
been trained, even in the homes of the mission- 
aries, having been turned over to them from 
their own homes, contribute their share to the 
uplift of the rest of the family of children. 

What is the social standing now? Homes con- 
sisting of from three to five rooms are neatly 
kept, for what planter would want to part with 
a tenant who respects himself and family? So 
he thus provides homes as demanded by pro- 
gress made. 

Instrumental and vocal music may be heard 
after a hard day's labor; socials with quiet 
games and refreshments are held by the young 
people, and fathers and mothers are rapidly 
learning to converse on intelligent subjects. 

And now concerning those yet living in sin. 
The members of this same mothers' meeting 
during the past year together with other good 
women not members, signed up a petition ask- 
ing the landlord to help them in some way to rid 
the plantation of such transgressors of the law. 
He looking upon it with favor, decided with 
them that for the sake of those who do live right 



OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 511 

and are endeavoring to train their children, as 
well as for the children born in sin, something 
should be done. 

So though ignorance and denominational 
prejudice are rife, yet now and then, we may see 
evidences of the Day dawning on the plantation. 

Sophia Cox Johson, 

Millers Ferry, Ala. 



ALL HUMAN BLOOD IS ALIKE— IN- 
TERMARRIAGE 

BY BISHOP J. \V. SMITH, D. D. 
(Contributed for this book.) 

That the Negro is one of the great races of 
the human family is a fact as solid as Gibraltar. 
M'hy Jehovah made men of various colors is not 
only unexplainable but His business. It is a 
fact beyond truthful contradiction that He did 
not make a white Adam, a black Adam, a red 
Adam and a yellow Adam. 

All mankind descended from one Adam and 
Eve. The origin of the human family is one, 
for the Apostle Paul in Acts, 17:26 says God 
*'hath made of one blood all nations of men for 
to dwell on all the face of the earth." After 
careful chemical examination of the blood of 
human beings and that of animals the scientists 



512 



HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 




BISHOP J. W. SMITH, D. D. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 513 

have found a difference; but in the blood of 
human beings, irrespective of color, they declare 
they have found no difference whatever. 

The late and famous Dr. T. Dewitt Talmage 
agreemg with Paul says, 'That is if for some 
reason general phlebotomy were ordered, and 
standing in a row were an American, an English- 
man, a Scotchman, an Italian, a Frenchman, a 
German, a Aorwegian, an Icelander, a Spaniard, 
a Negro, a Russian, and these and repre- 
sentatives of all other nationalities bared their 
right arm and a lancet were stuck into it the 
blood let out would have the same characteris- 
tics for ,t would be red, complex, fibrine, 
globulins, chlorine and contain sulphuric acid 
potassium, phosphate of magnesia and so on' 
All the scientific doctors, allopathic, homeo- 
pathic, hydropathic and electic would also agree 
with Paul's declaration on Mars Hill The 
countenances of the five races of the human fam- 
ily may be different as a result of climate or edu- 
cation or habits, but the blood is the same and 
indicates that they all had one origin." 

Any one who doubts the truthfulness of the 
foregoing facts simply pushes his reason to the 
back of his mind and gives imagination, igno- 
rance and prejudice full swing. Colorphobia is 
the offspring of the devil and is born in hell I 
While thousands of white people admire colors 

33 



514 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

of all kinds, admire a black horse, a black cat, 
a black dress, yet when black is seen in a Negro, 
it becomes as detestable to them as the gates of 
hell or a hissing serpent! Why? Because they 
look upon black in a human being as a badge of 
inferiority. If their foresight were as good and 
clear as their hindsight, so as to let sentiment 
give way to common sense they would at once 
see that black is no more a disgrace in a human 
being than in an animal or clothes. 

A Negro may be as black as Egyptian dark- 
ness, which was said to be so dark and thick as 
to be felt with your fingers, but if he has intelli- 
gence and moral character, he is as honorable 
in the sight of God as the whitest person with 
intelligence and character that walks this earth. 
Thomas Jefferson was right when he wrote in 
the Declaration of Independence that "God cre- 
ated all men free and equal." That does not 
mean that they are equal physically, in mental 
equipment and wealth, but that they are equal 
in the sight of God and righteous civil law in 
their inalienable rights to "life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness." If God created all men 
free and equal, and all colors are alike honor- 
able in the sight of God, no race because of a 
lighter complexion or any other advantage has 
any right to rule or enslave the Negro because 
he is black. Every inch of progress made by 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 515 

the black race in this and foreign lands has been 
similar to the progress made by all other races 
which climbed from ignorance to enlighten- 
ment, and this proves conclusively the common 
origin of the races, and logically shows that the 
black race is entitled to enjoy the same rights 
and privileges that other races enjoy. 

I have been asked if I believe that amalgama- 
tion or miscegenation between the white and 
black races will solve the Negro problem. No 
sir. There is no such thing as amalgamation or 
miscegenation between human beings. The de- 
finition of each word means to mix, intermingle. 
Since the entire human race has been made of 
one blood, there can be no mixing. If a human 
being and an animal were to associate which, ac- 
cording to the law of God would mean death to 
both man and beast, and according to the law of 
the land, would mean fine and imprisonment, 
that would be amalgamation, for all doctors and 
scientists unanimously agree that the blood of 
human beings and beasts differ. Where there 
is amalgamation or a mixing of different bloods, 
no offspring result. 

If white and black people cohabit, children 
are born, and this is incontrovertible proof that 
the black race is not a beast, did not descend 
from the ape or monkey, but is of the same 
blood as the Anglo-Saxon and other races and 



516 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

belongs to the universal equality of the human 
family of which Adam is their ancestor and Eve 
their ancestress. 

While I would not marry outside of my race, 
yet I consider it entirely within the range of 
propriety to say that I register no protest against 
intermarriage, since the Negro race is made of 
the same blood as the other four human races. 
The Bible does not prohibit it and civil law 
made by that class of prejudiced and hateful 
lawmakers who diligently use the muck brush 
to besmear filth over the good name and 
progress of the black race has no right to regu- 
late the affections of human beings. Abraham, 
Jacob's sons, Moses, Boaz, David and Solomon 
intermarried. Moses married an Ethiopian 
woman and when his prejudiced relatives 
''kicked" about it, Jehovah smote the "kickers" 
with leprosy. "What God (not civil law) hath 
joined together (Matthew 19:4) let no man 
put asunder." From Noah's day until the 
present time the five races have been mingling 
and marrying. 

It is better to intermarry than to practice the 
so-called amalgamation or miscegenation which 
when boiled down to its quintessence is nothing 
but fornication and adultery between unprin- 
cipled white and black people. Amalgamation 
Is the actual odor of this unsavory kettle of fish, 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 517 

and to argue the reverse would be as absurd as 
it would be for a man to shut his eyes on a lamp 
and try to turn his eyes inward to find out 
whether there were any image painted on the 
retina. The best and surest remedy to break up 
this lust, lewdness, paramour and sexual inter- 
course business which goes on yet between the 
lower strata of the white and black races is mar- 
riage; and since there is not one precept in the 
Bible forbidding white and colored marrying, 
these words in Hebrews, 13: 4, then come with 
double force: "Marriage is honorable in all, 
and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and 
adulterers God will judge." 

Rather than violate the moral law of God 
which applies alike to all persons or races, the 
foundation of that law being justice, and feeling 
that no prejudiced relative or friend has any- 
thing to do with their affections, each one hav- 
ing married to suit himself or herself, there are 
living hundreds of white and colored people hap- 
pily married, living lovingly together in cities 
like Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Bos- 
ton and Chicago; and voices of fair play and 
common justice of those who have come into 
heritage of a nobler view of this and kindred 
subjects, relative to the colored people, have not 
become sufficiently loud enough yet to ring out 
like a fire alarm in the late hours of night. The 



518 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

following press association item is an instance 
published recently in the leading white news- 
papers of the country, of a prominent Southern 
white man who rather than live in adultery 
with my aunt honorably and legally married 
her. 



WED NEGRESS LEGALLY 



Death of White Man Recalls Remarkable Case 
in North Carolina. 

(Special to Washington Herald.) 

Fayetteville, N. C, Sept 17. — G. Thornton, 
a prominent and wealthy Republican politician 
in reconstruction days and who, by military 
authority, married Elsie Hargrove, a Negro 
woman, in 1866, and has since lived as a mem- 
ber of his wife's race, died at his home here to- 
day. 

The marriage of Thornton to a negress is the 
only case of miscegenation of record in North 
Carolina, so far as known. The marriage, after 
being allowed by military authority of the dis- 
trict, was legalized by the constitutional conven- 
tion, which met two years later. Thornton, who 
was eighty-five years of age, is survived by his 
wife and five children. He will be buried from 
the leading Negro church in Fayetteville." 
Washington, D. C. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S 3P0TS 519 

THE AFRO-AMERICAN, AS HE WAS, 
NOW IS AND WILL BE 

How He Is Bleaching and Will Become 
Socially Equal 

BY REV. J. W. wood, D. D. 

Pastor of A. M. E. Zion (State St.) Church, Mobile, Ala. 

(Contributed for this book) 

I. My purpose is to discuss the Afro-Ameri- 
can Negro as he was, as he is now, and as he will 
be in the future; his social relations to other 
races than his own, and the final end of the 
present-day "bickering." 

During two hundred and seventy-five years 
the Negro was a slave to his white brother, and 
during this long period of severe hardship and 
oppression he was not allowed to read or write. 
This was the white man's law, and if a Negro 
was found with a book he was severely punished. 
The poor Negro was ignorant and was kept in 
ignorance for the sake of the institution of 
slavery. In those days of his sore affliction the 
Negro woman was seduced, assaulted and rav- 
ished by the white man. Negro women gave 
birth to mulatto children. This practice, on the 
part of the white man, continued throughout the 
shameful and disgraceful period of slavery. 

Since the Civil War the intermixing of whites 



520 



HOL^rS RACE ASSnilLATIOX 




REV. J. W. WOOD, D. D. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SP.OTS 521 

and blacks has abated but little in some sections 
of the South, and the habit continues just as it 
did in the days of slavery. The relations of 
whites and blacks in this respect, in some com- 
munities of the South, are inseparable. There 
is no legislation or physical force that can keep 
them apart or entirely segregated. 

The art of love-making is prevalent between 
the races, and it is puzzling to know when it 
will end. 

2. To understand the situation more fully 
we shall now speak, secondly, of the Afro-Amer- 
ican as he is now. At the close of the war the 
13th, 14th and 15th amendment of the Con- 
stitution purported to give the Negro all 
rights as an American citizen. Freedom dawned 
upon the race at the time when it was entirely 
unprepared to appreciate its real worth and 
meaning, because of previous conditions and 
ignorance. Northern philanthropists just at 
this time were eager to lend a helping hand to the 
unfortunate blacks. They sent missionaries and 
teachers to the Southland for the purpose of edu- 
cating the Negro and lifting him from the gut- 
ter of vice and immorality, to make him a clean 
and responsible citizen, to prepare him for the 
responsibilities of American citizenship, to teach 
him the worth of the ballot, to train him to 
handle the affairs of state and government, to 



522 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

be legislators, governors, representatives, con- 
gressmen; to prepare him to meet every political 
issue intelligently and to install in him self-re- 
liance, moral culture and that refinement so 
characteristic of the Anglo-American. For this 
and other purposes the northern white man has 
given millions of dollars. 

Education has made the Negro a mighty unit 
in the present-day history of the American na- 
tion. His refinement and great depth of learn- 
ing and high moral character has lifted him to 
the high standard of America's best citizens. 
Now, this being true, the Negro who is worthy 
should be accorded every right that belongs to 
him as a citizen. No civil, political or social 
rights should be denied him because of his color. 
If he has the ability and ambition to be a teacher, 
minister, lawyer, physician, legislator, congress- 
man or President of these United States, his 
color should not stand in the way of his progress. 

But the Anglo-American says he is inferior, 
and not even fit for American citizenship. .And 
that he is wholly unprepared to cast a ballot, or 
to have a voice in the law-making bodies of the 
country. They tell us by the enactment of dis- 
criminating laws that we are not fit to ride in the 
same car with white men, unfit to ride in a sleep- 
ing car in the South, unfit to put up at the same 
hotel, unfit to dine at the same table, unfit to 
drink from the same fount, to sit together in 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 523 

theatres, to amuse ourselves together in public 
places and the like. 

There are colored men and women whose lives 
are above reproach, and whose refinement and 
good behavior is equal to the best Caucasian 
blood on American soil, and yet they are denied 
the rights of citizens and discriminated against 
in almost every walk of life. 

We have only one hope, we know that Provi- 
dence is not asleep. Justice will awake in favor 
of the dark-skinned man. Chinese, Japanese 
and all Asiatic races come to our country and 
are accorded the privilege of American citizen- 
ship and social equality, and many of these are 
no better than the Negro race and some morally 
not as good. 

Whilewe must admit that wehave some friends 
in the South who rejoice in the progress of the 
Negro, the spirit of the South is to keep the 
Negro in the background, and in political 
slavery. The South predicted the downfall of 
the government, but their fondest expectations 
failed and their cause was lost. God has decreed 
otherwise — that the Negro should be free. This 
same God lives today, and we believe that He 
v/ill do right. 

3. I shall now speak of the Afro-American 
Negro as he will be in the future. 

Every indication points to a happy solution 
of the vexed race problem. His wonderful 



524 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

achievement since his physical emancipation has 
been phenomenal. He has been able through 
efforts of his own and the assistance of the 
philanthropist to reduce his ignorance sixty per 
cent. The vast accumulation of property, the 
improvements in the home-life, the educational 
and religious advancement and economic and 
industrial progress that have been made within 
the last few years are indicative of the fact that 
ere long the Negro will find his place just a lit- 
tle higher up in the social world. The future 
is pregnant and freighted with political and 
social rights of the Afro-American Negro. 

The Negro's Star of Social Emancipation has 
been seen upon the horizon of the times. We 
may have bitter experiences, the race may suffer 
much as a result of mob violence; doors may be 
closed in our faces, but it matters not what the 
discriminations nor how severe the punishment, 
the day is coming when the rights of every man 
will be respected, whether he be white, yellow, 
brown or black. The time will come when the 
white man and the black man will stand upon 
terms of social equality in all things. As he 
has admitted the Chinese, the Japanese, the 
Malays and all other Asiatic races to social 
equality, he will in time admit the Negro and 
they will be brothers, working together for the 
betterment and the advancement of the Master's 
Kingdom. 



OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 525 

4. In my concluding remarks I shall speak 
of the Afro-American; his social relations with 
other races than his own, and the final end of the 
present-day bickering. It is a known fact that 
the Anglo-American throughout the country 
offers no social inducements to the Negro, es- 
pecially in the Southland. Forces are at work 
in every section of the country to keep the two 
races apart socially, but regardless of what may 
be done or said, this barrier is being broken 
down by the individual man and woman. While 
we know that discrimination and color castes is 
a sin and is wrong, we also know that the ques- 
tion of social equality will in time adjust itself 
— eventually it will force itself upon both races, 
each race will be a victim within itself, and 
prejudice and color line will, from circum- 
stances or necessity, have to be entirely wiped 
out. Old Father Time is gradually bleaching the 
Negro race and is removing stainspots from the 
character of the race. Ignorance is giving place 
to intelligence, wretchedness and wickedness is 
giving place to righteousness and justice, pov- 
erty is giving place to wealth, and prejudice is 
giving place to love of freedom and good will 
toward all men. This we believe to be the 
course of Divine Providence. We have noticed 
too, that white men have greater respect for the 
educated and more intelligent members of the 



526 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 

race, than they have for the unlearned and lower 
classes. 

It seems that the best white people are eager 
to come into closer relations with the better class 
of Negroes. It is plain to us all that education 
has not driven the whites and blacks apart to any- 
alarming extent, but on the other hand has 
brought them closer together in a social way. 

Social equality is as sure to come as there 

IS a God. It will begin to exert itself among the 
more intelligent of both races, and in proportion 
to the real moral worth and intelligence of the 
race, just in that proportion will social equality 
dawn upon it. 

Again, an investigation will reveal the fact 
that the Negro is growing brighter with each 
succeeding generation, and this of itself will in 
time equalize the races socially. I visited one 
of our institutions of learning last year and to 
my utter surprise, out of two hundred pupils in 
the school building that day, there were only six 
black children, all the rest were from a dark 
brown to white! In the course of time the 
Negro race will be a race of "white Negroes," 
and so mixed by cross-blood and intermixing 
that the question of social equality and equal 
rights will settle itself and the present-day bick- 
ering will come to an end. 

John W. Wood. 



Je23 



